Edgewood Teacher in Gay Scandal!

...but not what you think it's about. From ABC:

An Edgewood high school teacher resigns after admitting to taking students to a Dayton gay bar where the teenagers got their hands on alcohol.

Lori Epperson submitted a letter of resignation Thursday. She also sent an email to her supervisor and the school principal in which she admits to taking four female students to a club called Masque.

Sources tell 9News that Epperson's 18-year-old daughter was among the teens.

School officials launched an investigation after learning about the incident. They describe it as "inappropriate" conduct for a teacher.

Story goes on to indicate that Epperson got permission from all the parents, but the girls got ahold of alcohol after they had walked away. Out of curiosity, I wonder why they decided to do this at all. Surely the teacher was aware of the PR fiasco this would cause, though I applaud the action in theory. (There was a teacher at MU who made his students go to a drag show to talk about gender performance... but that's an older crowd.)

...unfortunately for Masque, one of the girls was 17, which is a real problem, as the school district is considering pursuing legal action.

Oops.

Thanks to Montgomery for the heads up yesterday, and Towleroad for the reminder today.

Family can help "save" gay youth

Not necessarily about conversion therapy. :-) But a new study proves that a family's acceptance of their child's sexual identity dramatically decreases the risk of that child committing suicide.

From the Gay.com article:

Young gay people whose parents or guardians responded negatively when they revealed their sexual orientation were more likely to attempt suicide, experience severe depression and use drugs than those whose families accepted the news, according to a new study by researchers at San Francisco State University. The study also found that the way in which parents respond to a youth's sexual orientation profoundly influences the child's mental health as an adult.

Among other findings, the study showed that teens who experienced negative feedback were more than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide, nearly six times as vulnerable to severe depression and more than three times at risk of drug use.

The ongoing work at San Francisco State suggests that parents who take even baby steps to respond with equanimity instead of rejection can dramatically improve a gay youth's mental health outlook.

(And also from a reputable news source here as well.)

Though it seems like a big old duh, it's important because of the whole "gay people commit suicide and are therefore unhealthy" argument that tends to float around the right. No, gay people aren't unhealthy because they're gay. Gay people are unhealthy because we reject them as youth and thus make them unhealthy.

So, Pat Robertson, it's all your fault.

And let me remind all my readers of all the invaluable work that HopeLine (1-800-SUICIDE)  does to prevent suicide for teens, not to mention the amazing stuff that goes on over at the Trevor Project (866-4-U-TREVOR) for gay teens. If you have some spare cash this year, or have some "unused funds" for Christmas donations, here are two possible and excellent places for that money to go.