{"id":3327,"date":"2016-10-21T16:25:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T14:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3327"},"modified":"2016-10-21T16:28:05","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T14:28:05","slug":"owen-jones-gays-are-mentally-disturbed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/3327\/","title":{"rendered":"Owen Jones: Gays are Mentally Disturbed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2016\/oct\/20\/gay-men-hiv-homophobia-lgbt-drink-drugs\" target=\"_blank\">This<\/a> is an odd thing for Owen Jones &#8211; an openly gay journalist &#8211; to write:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[Author Matthew Todd]\u00a0identifies a number of problems that most gay men, if they were honest, would at least recognise: \u201cDisproportionately high levels of depression, self-harm and suicide; not uncommon problems with emotional intimacy \u2026 and now a small but significant subculture of men who are using, some injecting, seriously dangerous drugs, which despite accusations of hysteria from the gatekeepers of the gay PR machine, are killing too many people.\u201d He lists a disturbing number of gay friends, acquaintances and people in the public eye who struggled with addictions and took their own lives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The statistics are indeed alarming. According to Stonewall research in 2014, 52% of young LGBT people report they have, at some point, self-harmed; a staggering 44% have considered suicide; and 42% have sought medical help for mental distress. Alcohol and drug abuse are often damaging forms of self-medication to deal with this underlying distress. A recent study by the LGBT Foundation found that drug use among LGB people is seven times higher than the general population, binge drinking is twice as common among gay and bisexual men, and substance dependency is significantly higher.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Hasn&#8217;t it traditionally been the religious nutcases that insist homosexuals are mentally disturbed and in desperate need of help? \u00a0Now it&#8217;s <em>Guardian<\/em> journalists. \u00a0We live in strange times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is an odd thing for Owen Jones &#8211; an openly gay journalist &#8211; to write: [Author Matthew Todd]\u00a0identifies a number of problems that most gay men, if they were honest, would at least recognise: \u201cDisproportionately high levels of depression, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/3327\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3327"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3329,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327\/revisions\/3329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}