@phanto, @divine_msn Do not insult us with grubby back-of-envelop stats that you use purely to be mean when you know there must be reliable statistics out there.

Do not be so mean as to claim low suicide levels means there are no problems - the stigma scars people for life, affects their sexual health and rates of STI like HIV, drug and alcohol use, their relationships and their ability in the workforce.

Please rebut the references used in this report
http://www.lgbthealth.org.au/sites/default/files/Biefing_Paper_FINAL_19_Aug_2-11.pdf
pg 3:
"• At least 36.2% of trans people and 24.4% of gay, lesbian and
bisexual people currently meet the criteria for experiencing a
major depressive episode, compared with 6.8% of the general
population.v This rate soars to 59.3% of trans women (male to
female) under 30 in a LaTrobe University study.vi"

"• LGBTI people have the highest rates of suicidality of any
population in Australia
• 20% of trans Australiansx and 15.7% of lesbian, gay and
bisexual Australiansxi report current suicidal ideation (thoughts)
• Up to 50% of trans people have attempted suicide at least once
in their lives.xii
• Same-sex attracted Australians have up to 14x higher rates of
suicide attempts than their heterosexual peers.xiii Rates are 6x
higher for same-sex attracted young people (20-42% cf. 7-13%)xiv
• The average age of a first suicide attempt is 16 years – often
before ‘coming out’xv"

"• The elevated risk of mental ill-health and suicidality among
LGBTI people is not due to sexuality, sex or gender identity in
and of themselves but rather due to discrimination and
exclusion as key determinants of health.xx This is sometimes
referred to as minority stress.xxi"

Do not insult young people who have yet to have sex with 'gay lifestlye' or indeed insult yourself.

EricG : Even if those figures are true it does not automatically follow that the depression is caused by negative attitudes towards homosexual people. All these people may well be victims of negative attitudes and behaviour but there is one other thing they all have in common and that is that they are homosexual.

Depression is most commonly caused by attitudes and behaviour which are not in our own best interest. When we are living someone else’s dream, or stuck in a relationship or job or place where we really do not want to be we are going to be depressed. We are not allowing our own nature to flourish or not acting according to what we really think and feel and this can have very detrimental effects upon our health and well-being. If we are constantly fighting our instincts and our own human nature then we are going to go downhill until we break out of that bind.

What homosexual people will never accept is that homosexual behaviour and lifestyle goes completely against human nature. They have driven their own natural instincts underground and fight desperately to keep them underground. They constantly have to justify their behaviour to themselves and desperately try to stop society from questioning their behaviour because they are not comfortable with it themselves and do not want to be reminded of this. The urgency to silence any questioning voices becomes more and more desperate until they become aggressive and resort to bullying and intimidation of anyone who dares to suggest that homosexual behaviour is not natural or logical.

EricG, this aggression and desperation comes to the surface in your posts. You are not a person who is at peace with his own attitudes and behaviour. It is a simple question of a lack of logic. Homosexual people are depressed – they are victims of bad attitudes about their homosexual behaviour therefore it must be these bad attitudes that cause their depression. Refusal to look for any other cause condemns a person to continual depression. It is indeed you who insults yourself.

Do we all understand that the only reason that homosexuality was de-listed from the diagnostic list of emotional disorders was political pressure from Gay rights campaigners?
Psychology and Psychiatry are not sciences and their diagnostic manuals are edited by a show of hands by a panel of "experts" not on the basis of scientific findings.
The same field of "experts" who based on non scientific ideas categorised homosexuality as sociopathic behavior in the 1950's now promote the opposite view based on non scientific ideas.
All we know for sure is that Psychologists and Psychiatrists, counsellors and clergy have no business speaking on this subject.

"@phanto, @divine_msn Do not insult us with grubby back-of-envelop stats that you use purely to be mean when you know there must be reliable statistics out there."

WTH Eric G? These figures were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Go insult them. If you can find published data you consider more reliable - by all means quote the figures and source, as I did.

People suicide for many, often unfathomable, reasons. It's been going on since the dawn of man and will continue to do so.

If someone has issues regarding their sexuality chances are those originated from within their family or 'culture' - not society as a whole. "God" knows there are enough openly homosexual role models out there to aspire to.

As for other issues you mention: STIs FFS! Does it escape your intellect that Safe Sex messages have been directed strongly at the gay male community since HIV/AIDS became rampant in the mid 1980s? Is being homosexual in some way causing stupidity? Because STUPIDITY is all I can attribute to taking life threatening risks. You can't catch an STI just because you are gay! You catch STIs through careless personal behaviour and poor sexual hygiene - just like everybody else.

Ability in the workforce? So being homosexual restricts your career choices or capability does it? Maybe if you are one of those who wants to be so "individual" as to be unattractive to potential employers - in the same way of Goths, Emos, super tattooed & pierced, wildly dressed and coiffured etc. Otherwise - please explain?

Eric G - you make homosexuality look very bad indeed. I think perhaps society should rethink its tolerance for same sex attraction.

Seriously - go be silly somewhere else

@divine_msn One of my references comes from the ABS, the difference being yours was full of navel gazing estimates of your own concoction and mine was what ABS actually got from their data on GLBTI. It isn't enough that you be homophobic but you must be deceitful as well with stats.

As for your 'compassion' over GLBTI suicide, clearly too many of us are wimping out and not taking enough people with us.

Not a day goes by with out me reading or hearing that I am not worthy to have been born, that I should not have survived suicidal ideation that swallowed up my teenage years and that I am stupid to be effected by you mean people who denigrate me. You speak for yourself about the 'irrationality of suicide' but if went through with it today it would be quite rational and I would make sure I leave behind this page and point to your comments. I would make double sure I would not be another to fall through the cracks to not be attributed to the cold hearted meanness shown toward diversity of biology.

You creeps want chaplains because you like who they help and who they cannot help. You make Rolf Harris seem like a good guy because what he did was much more limited and individualistic. You guys are a cheers squad for religious right.

EricG, I'm sorry for the rubbish you have had to read above.
Just know that not all posters to this site have such anti-gay, narrow-minded opinions.

I share your suspicions re the chaplains in schools, and I agree that gay students would not feel comfortable seeking out their 'counsel'.

This Government, led by an ex student priest , wants to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to support only religious chaplains in secular schools, while claiming not to have enough money to give pensioners even a basic wage to live on.