Family and Friends
The support, or lack thereof, from one's family members and friends is an integral aspect in the coming out phase and the journey to finding peace with one's homosexuality. It is also often a difficult journey for friends and family, who usually feel there is no one they can talk to about this issue. Kinship's Family and Friends Coordinator offers resources to make this an easier transition for all.
Supportive straight family members and friends may become Kinship members and participate in the Facebook group for Family and Friends. In recent years, these supportive friends and family have been honored with a special tribute and complementary meal at the annual Kinship Kampmeeting.
A website, www.someone-to-talk-to.net, a book, My Son, Beloved Stranger, a DVD, Open Heart, Open Hand, and an online support group are resources available for family and friends, and for Kinship members to give them. The book and DVD can be ordered online at www.sdagayperspectives.
If you have a family member or friend who is gay or lesbian and you'd like to learn to be more supportive of him/her, please join SDA Kinship today to help foster a supportive community.
To contact the Family and Friends Coordinator,
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Lead With Love
Strengthening Families
through the coming out process
"What do I do if my child is gay?" Lead With Love is a 35-minute documentary created to help answer that question. The film follows four families as they share their honest reactions to hearing that their child is gay, including the intense emotions, fears, and questions that it raised. Interviews with psychologists, teachers, and clergy provide factual answers to parents' most commonly asked questions, as well as concrete guidance to help parents keep their children healthy and safe during this challenging time. (http://www.leadwithlovefilm.com)
A study called "Family Rejection as a Predictor of Negative Health Outcomes in White and Latino Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Young Adults" appeared in the January 2009 issue of the prestigious journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Click here to read the article...
This study was the first to bring to light the power parents have to affect the lives of their LGB children — either to protect them from that hostile society, or to set them up to be its tormented victims. Specifically, "LGB young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide, 5.9 times more likely to report illegal drug use, and 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse, compared with peers from families with no or low levels of family rejection."
Read the study, here...
If Your Spouse Is Gay, You Are Not Alone
Susan Pease Gadoua, Author of, 'Stronger Day by Day'—Posted: 1/11/12
No one knows exactly how many gay, lesbian, or transgender people there are throughout the world.
This is so partly because some of these gay folks don't know it themselves and partly because they know it, but they don't want to share this information with others (namely their family or government).
And it is with good reason that people hide their sexual preferences. In cultures where homosexuality is less accepted, the consequences of being queer range from being ostracized to bringing shame to your family to being killed.
Read the full article, here...
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