High levels of homophobia among teenage boys are harming the mental health of young gay people and putting them at risk of suicide, according to a study commissioned by beyondblue.
It revealed a third of boys aged 14 to 17 would not be happy to have a same-sex attracted person in their friendship group and one in five found it hard to treat a gay person the same as others.
Forty per cent agreed they felt “anxious” or “uncomfortable” around same-sex attracted people.
A quarter said derogatory terms such as “homo” and “dyke” are “not really that bad”.
The chairman of beyondblue, Jeff Kennett, told Radio National the results were disturbing.
“Over half of those we surveyed have witnessed first hand people being bullied for their sexuality. Over half – now that’s of concern,” he said.
“And just under half said that they’d seen people bullied for the same reason on social media.
“That rings alarm bells for me because not only have we had deaths among young people who’ve been bullied on social media, we’ve had copycat deaths among young people.”
Parents ‘horrified’ by the findings
Pamela Garske, whose son is gay, said she was absolutely horrified by the findings.
Ms Garske said her son had struggled with his sexuality his entire life and been severely bullied at high school 20 years ago.
“My son suffered mercilessly, but he still lives at home with us, and he’s 40 years old, because he’s suffered from depression and anxiety and it all started in Year Five at school,” she said.
“I thought we’d progressed, I really thought we only had to get through equal rights with gay marriage and we would be home and hosed.
“But with this report, we are not, and I find that really, really disappointing.”
The NSW president of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Judy Brown, said community leaders needed to shoulder some of the blame for the intolerant attitudes.
“A lot of the politicians who have a lot to say are not in favour of granting full rights to gay people,” she said.
“And also, you know often the hierarchy of the mainstream churches are also very outspoken about gay people.
“And I think that probably has a lot to do with attitudes of those in society.”
Awareness campaign launched to end discrimination
The findings reveal young males have more homophobic attitudes than the general public.
They have prompted beyondblue to launch a campaign to end lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) discrimination among teenagers, particularly boys.
A television ad shows a group of boys bullying a left-handed teenager to highlight the absurdity of discriminating against people for being themselves.
Mr Kennett said there was often a much better understanding of the harmful effects of discrimination as teenagers mature.
“In this cohort of young people it still exists quite alarmingly and therefore this campaign is designed to continue to educate in order to reduce that level of discrimination and hurt,” he said.
“Sadly the LGBTI community perhaps suffers more serious depression, mental illnesses and suicide as a group than any other community in Australia.”