Mackenzie Mays is a reporter for the Fresno Bee. Her series on teen pregnancy and sex education was done as a fellow with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism....
Officials in San Francisco and Sacramento are aiming to make answering questions about sexual orientation and gender identity routine as they begin to collect this data in multiple settings and on government forms.
This article is the second of three looking at LGBT data collection and was written as part of a California Health Journalism Fellowship project with the University of Southern California-Annenberg Center for Health Care Journalism.
What will we do if the Orlando killing was actually about internalized homophobia and self-hatred?
In Asian American families, where the subject of sex is particularly taboo and parents may lack sex education themselves, discussions about sex are less likely to happen. Reporter Thy Vo set out to document the consequences for young Asian Americans.
In the years after coming out to his family as a teen, Lotus Dao felt alienated from them. Lacking support, he began abusing cocaine and alcohol, and struggled with an eating disorder. His story is not uncommon in a community that does not openly discuss sex and gender, Thy Vo reports.
Juan was 17 when he entered the U.S., backpack on his shoulders, easily passing as an American student through the Tijuana border.
He quickly realized that, as an undocumented immigrant, it wouldn’t be easy to stay in the U.S.. And as a gay man, it wouldn’t be easy to go back to Mexico.
Montana native D Gregory Smith felt alone, helpless and suicidal as a teen about feelings for other young men. He became a priest hoping to turn off his sexuality, but ultimately decided to come out as a gay man. He now counsels LGBT high school and college students and gay men.
Dominic Liam Gliko, 20, discusses the challenges he faced as an adolescent wrestling with his sexuality, including attempts at suicide. Born female, Gliko ultimately decided to become a man.
Being LGBT is not a risk factor for suicide, but the stressors they encounter, like discrimination and harassment, are directly associated with suicidal behavior. The challenge of being an LGBT youth is compounded in mostly rural Montana, where there are few places for "different" people to belong.
