Ladies’ Home Journal, the venerable women’s magazine that launched back in 1883 and has helped define the genre, has published a major article this month on anti-gay bullying, “Gay Teens Bullied to the Point of Suicide.” The sub-header hints at the broad range of political and religious beliefs held by LHJ readers: “It’s a shocking trend. Isn’t it time for all of us to encourage compassion and respect, no matter how we feel about homosexuality?”
It’s well worth a read, especially because writer Kenneth Miller has geared the piece to appeal even to the more conservative members of his audience. He cites experts from Minnesota, Nebraska, and Ohio, not exactly liberal bastions, as well as Warren Throckmorton, an evangelical professor who has at times advocated for helping people to overcome same-sex desires. Throckmorton is not as extreme or confrontational as many others associated with the far right, however, and in fact has developed for Christian schools an anti-bullying program based on “the Golden Rule Pledge”—treating others as we would have them treat us. An odd choice, perhaps, for those of us used to reading about bullying in more progressive contexts, but one that may carry more weight with LHJ’s audience of varied political persuasions.
Miller also cites clinical social worker Caitlin Ryan, head of the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University, who has shown that the more parents reject their children for being LGBT, the more likely the children will suffer from depression, take drugs, or attempt suicide. Conversely, the more supportive the parents are, the better the kids do. Acceptance, Ryan explains, “doesn’t necessarily mean changing your deeply held beliefs. It means finding a way to balance those beliefs with the love you have for your child.” (For more on Ryan’s work, see my piece at 365gay.com.)
Miller succeeds here because he is not trying to convince readers that being gay is okay, or not sinful, or just another expression of human sexuality. He doesn’t opine one way or the other—but his very neutrality indicates to me that he is in fact being careful not to raise his audience’s hackles. Instead, he stays focused on the point that children are at risk, and politics and religion aside, we need to act to help them. It’s a great approach for a varied audience like that of LHJ.
I hope you’ll take a moment to sign the petition below and thank LHJ for publishing the piece. I imagine some readers will take offense at their support for gay youth, no matter what. (If the embedded petition doesn’t work, try it at Change.org.)
Hooray for publishing an article on anti-gay bullying.