"Voicing concern over suicide risk for 'gay youth,' homosexual activists are pushing pro-homosexual programs in the schools, which will invariably ensnare vulnerable teens... Their diagnosis: gay youths need affirmation of their homosexuality in a 'homophobic' world, or they may become suicidal. The proferred solution: affirmation programs that make gay youths comfortable with being homosexual and the rest of the student population comfortable with the concept of homosexuality. Once everyone accepts homosexuality as 'normal' and 'natural,' gay youth will achieve high self-esteem and avoid suicidal behavior...

"The genesis of the homosexual teen suicide myth lies in a deeply-flawed... report by San Francisco homosexual activist Paul Gibson. The paper, 'Gay Male and Lesbian Youth Suicide,' was included in and then dropped from a larger 1989 report by a special federal task force on youth suicide reporting to Dr. Louis Sullivan, former Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). As David Shaffer, one of the country's leading authorities on youth suicide, notes, Gibson's paper 'was never subjected to the rigorous peer review that is required for publication in a scientific journal, and contained no new research findings' (David Shaffer, 'Political Science,' The New Yorker, May 3, 1993, p. 116).

"The following are some of Gibson's most tendentious and oft-repeated claims:

"* gay and lesbian youths may account for one- third of all youth suicides;

* homosexual youths are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers;

* suicide is the leading cause of death among gay and lesbian youth; and

* gay youth suicide is caused by the internalization of 'homophobia' and violence directed at gays.

(Paul Gibson, 'Gay Male and Lesbian Youth Suicide,' originally contained in 'Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide,' January 1989)

"Although Gibson's report was ultimately rejected by the government, homosexual activists have skillfully used it to claim that 'government statistics' support their suicide assertions. Pro-gay articles routinely (and mistakenly) cite Gibson's unproven statistics as part of the HHS task force's official conclusions on youth suicide. (A good example is an essay by Del Stover which appeared in Education Digest (May 1992), condensed from The Executive Educator (March 1992). Mr. Stover writes: 'The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported in 1989 that 30 percent of all teens who commit suicide are gay and that gay teens are two to three times more likely than other teens to attempt suicide.')

"...David LaFontaine, a gay activist... went so far as to say, 'Gay youth suicide is like a hidden holocaust in America' (David LaFontaine, director of the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, quoted in New York Native, Feb. 24, 1992...).

"Notwithstanding such wild allegations, there is no consensus among experts that anything resembling an 'epidemic' of gay teen suicides even exists... Due in large part to the effective use of the suicide scare, Massachusetts teenagers in public schools are now facing an array of pro-gay counseling programs similar to Project 10 - - the Los Angeles school program set up by a lesbian teacher with the goal of 'validating the feelings' of 'lesbian and gay youth.' Project 10's blatant pro-gay bias is exemplified by its name, which is based on the now- repudiated myth that homosexuals make up 10 percent of the population.