Studies and government records confirm there are millions more divorces for heterosexual married couples than there are for same-sex couples.
You really can make a headline say anything you want. Even when it’s “true,” it can be intentionally misleading, destructive, harmful, and in essence, wrong. Or pointless.
Take The Times Of India’s latest piece, “Gays more likely to have mental illnesses.”
Oh my God!
Shocking!
Many gay people will read it to see what it says about them, their families, their friends, their community.
Many straight people who don’t like gays will read the headline and move on “knowing” their homophobia isn’t homophobia, just fact. “It’s OK to hate homosexuality, it’s really just sick.” And every person who reads it will have clicked on the piece, giving the publisher more hits, more traffic, more income.
It used to be called “yellow journalism.” Now, it’s just called “business as usual.”
On its website, the Harvard School of Public Health published a press release, titled, “Gay Men and Lesbians More Likely to Experience Violent Events and Subsequent Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.”
(It’s actually an interesting issue and I encourage you to read the HSPH piece, or view the abstract here.)
But the Times saw fit to change that to the sensational and homophobic “Gays more likely to have mental illnesses.”
In a very broad and mangled and probably not sue-able sense, “correct,” but not in the real sense.
The Harvard School of Public Health and Children’s Hospital Boston study that the Times refers to states,
“Exposure to multiple traumatic events at a young age may be contributing to the increased rates of PTSD among sexual minorities: 45% of sexual minority women and 28% of sexual minority men experienced violence or abuse in childhood, whereas 21% of women and 20% of men in the general population experience violence or abuse in childhood.”
and
“The authors urge that health care providers and families be aware that sexual minorities face a greater risk of violence and PTSD and may have a history of trauma that should be addressed before it becomes mentally debilitating.”
It does not state, “Gays more likely to have mental illnesses.” No mater how you slice it.
It’s so easy to mangle the truth in an effort to make money.
I’m more of the mind to think, “It’s OK to hate yellow journalism, it’s really just sick.”
(Journalist, heal thyself.)