Evidence that supportive religious denominations have a positive effect on gay youth

The Wisconsin State Journal reports on a study conducted by Dr. Maurice Gattis of UW Madison that shows gay youth involved in gay-affirming religious communities have fewer “depressive symptoms” from discrimination than other gay youth:

pecifically, gay college students in the study who were affiliated with gay-affirming religious denominations suffered fewer “depressive symptoms” related to discrimination than their gay counterparts who are secular or who were affiliated with denominations opposed to same-sex marriage.

Remarkably, this was true for all groups; that is to say, gays in “gay-affirming” denominations scored better on the survey than did secular gays.

For the Episcopal Church, one caveat: for the purposes of this study “gay-affirming” was defined by the denomination’s stand on same-sex marriage.

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