WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – The Biden administration has released a report acknowledging a substantial correlation between homosexuality/bisexuality and severe mental health issues, in a major conflict with the administration’s comprehensive efforts to affirm LGBT “identity.”
On June 13, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’s (HHS’s) Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released survey results “indicating that lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults are more likely than straight adults to use substances, experience mental health conditions including major depressive episodes, and experience serious thoughts of suicide,” according to an agency press release.
Specifically the report finds that, in the past year, lesbian and bisexual females are were more likely than straight women to engage in “heavy” or “binge” drinking, homosexual and bisexual individuals were 2-3 times more likely to partake in illicit drugs beyond marijuana, that a third of gay and bisexual males and a third of bisexual females had a substance abuse disorder, bisexual females were three times more likely than straight women to have had an opioid use problem, that “serious mental illness” was more than three times higher for bisexual males and two times higher for homosexual males than straight males, that over a quarter of bisexual females and one in seven lesbians suffered a “major depressive episode” (with with gay and bisexual males 2-3 times more likely to experience one), and bisexual females six times more likely to have attempted suicide.
Data on individuals suffering from gender dysphoria was not included in the survey, although it will be starting next year.
Notably, as of June 21, the direct link to the actual report redirects to a “Page not found” message, although a copy of the report was saved via the Internet Archive, which indicates it was accessible as recently as June 18.
The press release quotes HHS Assistant Secretary for Mental Health & Substance Use and SAMHSA administrator Miriam Delphin-Rittmon as suggesting this litany of ills is due to “stress caused by stigma, discrimination and harassment” of homosexual and bisexual Americans. The report itself admits it cannot “explain the reasons” for them, but suggests “invisibility and erasure” of LGBT individuals are the culprits.
“The survey isn’t even about erasure,” responds Dr. Jennifer Bauwens, director of the Family Research Council’s (FRC’s) Center for Family Studies. “The conclusion doesn’t match the nature of the report. It speaks to the fact that there’s a bigger agenda going on here. It’s just really bad ‘science’ all the way around.”
“One of the most glaring [omissions] has been documented over and over again,” she explained: “higher rates of adverse childhood events compared to the general population: They have so much more physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, and trauma in childhood. That’s also evidence in the substance abuse research, particularly those who use opioids, almost always had sexual abuse.”
“If I were coming to this data with eyes wide open, I would ask, ‘Did you have childhood sexual abuse?’” Bauwens said. “That opens a whole other intervention diagnostic and intervention pathway.”
Left-wing activists commonly frame LGBT individuals as victims of pervasive societal bigotry, despite the ubiquity of LGBT “pride” across government, schools, media, and business and nearly-bipartisan support for same-sex “marriage.” The Biden administration aggressively supports “affirming” same-sex attraction and gender confusion even among youth, despite evidence of grave medical and psychological consequences.