# High Rates of Pregnancy Among... GAY Teens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 10, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474 "2015-08-10T19:54:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/1 "2015-08-10T19:54:12Z")
That’s what the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports, anyway. > **[Gay teens have higher pregnancy rates than their straight peers](https://www.startribune.com/gay-teens-have-higher-pregnancy-rates-than-their-straight-peers/320842991/)** > > Experts said the trend could be driven by a lack of education for LGBTQ youths. Does this make any intuitive sense to anyone here? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/2 "2015-08-10T20:01:35Z")
Maybe they’re experimenting. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/3 "2015-08-10T20:14:28Z")
Is it possible they are lumping all the teens who identify as bisexual or gay, but have had some heterosexual experience into the category of gay? I have seen reports like that and I really skews the statistics in some odd directions. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/4 "2015-08-10T20:27:42Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Is it possible they are lumping all the teens who identify as bisexual or gay, but have had some heterosexual experience into the category of gay? I have seen reports like that and I really skews the statistics in some odd directions. That was my thought too. Now that the stigma against homosexuality seems to be waning there seem to be a lot of bisexual or bicurious teens. So maybe they get into bad safe sex habits with the same sex just aren’t being careful when they experiment with the opposite sex. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/5 "2015-08-10T21:11:20Z")
I’ve heard about this phenomenon too. I think a lot of it is a deliberate effort to “prove” they’re straight. YMMV, of course. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/6 "2015-08-10T21:22:21Z")
I’d imagine that there is correlation between those who self-identify as gay at that age, and the more sexually-active. At the very least, closeted teens would both self-identify as straight and not be likely to be having a lot of sex, driving the averages down in the “straight” column. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/7 "2015-08-10T21:26:33Z")
Could also be the abstinence pledge effect: If you don’t expect to be having sex that could get you pregnant, you’re less likely to be using an effective birth control method if you do have sex that could get you pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/8 "2015-08-11T05:14:49Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’ve heard about this phenomenon too. I think a lot of it is a deliberate effort to “prove” they’re straight. YMMV, of course. The guy in this video had a son as a teenager, may have been the phenomenon you refer to. This guy, Gavin, is a great dude. This video has nothing to do with being a gay parent, just an awesome video: [http://fox4kc.com/2014/06/04/video-irate-dollar-store-manager-sprays-suspected-shoplifter-with-stolen-air-freshener/](http://fox4kc.com/2014/06/04/video-irate-dollar-store-manager-sprays-suspected-shoplifter-with-stolen-air-freshener/) TL,DR: video of a Dollar General manager confronting shoplifters, then spraying them with the Febreze they stole. ETA: graphic language in video, but it’s another click to start it. ---
**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/9 "2015-08-12T20:21:25Z")
While it’s counterintuitive, it’s been true for a long time - most gay teenagers are still in the closet, often dating members of the opposite sex as cover. All of the usual teenage problems of low self esteem, discomfort with talking about sex, trouble with asserting your own sexual preferences, feeling like you need to use sex to maintain a troubled relationship, etc. get worse when you’re a gay teenager and can’t safely assert what you want and may need that straight relationship for social or physical safety. All of those issues cause reduced contraceptive use and increased coercive sex. Hence, increased teenage pregnancy. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/10 "2015-08-12T21:37:01Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Does this make any intuitive sense to anyone here? Being gay doesn’t make you infertile. A fair amount of gay people have children. When people talk about gay people being a genetic dead end because they don’t reproduce they don’t know what they’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/11 "2015-08-12T22:17:30Z")
All of what’s been said in this thread may be true. I would add that this is all based on an anonymous survey. When I was in high school, my friends and I viewed surveys about our health as a joke, and often chose answers that we thought would most annoy/confuse/offend the adults. That was our manner of teenage rebellion. Also, the percentage of gays and bisexuals in the population is small, around 2-3%. Getting accurate survey data from such small groups is always difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/12 "2015-08-12T22:40:53Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Is it possible they are lumping all the teens who identify as bisexual or gay, but have had some heterosexual experience into the category of gay? I have seen reports like that and I really skews the statistics in some odd directions. If this is the same study as [this](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10379429?dopt=Abstract), then the study _excluded_ all teens who had not had sex with an opposite sex partner. A guy who’d had sex with guys, but not girls or a girl who had sex with girls and not guys therefore does not get counted when calculating the percentage. It says “We restricted our sample to students who reported having had vaginal intercourse (n = 10 827; 5278 female and 5549 male students)” ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/13 "2015-08-13T03:23:26Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Being gay doesn’t make you infertile. A fair amount of gay people have children. When people talk about gay people being a genetic dead end because they don’t reproduce they don’t know what they’re talking about. Where are you seeing anyone express surprise that gay people are biologically capable of procreation? 😕 Gay teens getting pregnant is counterintuitive because it’s counterintuitive to think of gay people having sex with people of the opposite sex. Most of the posts here do a good job of illustrating how and why sexual practices may sometimes not match up with self-identified sexual orientation. There’s certainly been no one posting who seems to have only just now learned that gay people can procreate. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/14 "2015-08-13T03:28:32Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > Where are you seeing anyone express surprise that gay people are biologically capable of procreation? 😕 > > Gay teens getting pregnant is counterintuitive because it’s counterintuitive to think of gay people having sex with people of the opposite sex. Most of the posts here do a good job of illustrating how and why sexual practices may sometimes not match up with self-identified sexual orientation. There’s certainly been no one posting who seems to have only just now learned that gay people can procreate. I totally just did. Mind blown. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/15 "2015-08-13T04:24:39Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > If this is the same study as [this](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10379429?dopt=Abstract), then the study _excluded_ all teens who had not had sex with an opposite sex partner. A guy who’d had sex with guys, but not girls or a girl who had sex with girls and not guys therefore does not get counted when calculating the percentage. It says “We restricted our sample to students who reported having had vaginal intercourse (n = 10 827; 5278 female and 5549 male students)” I’m not seeing that statement or anything similar in either the abstract you linked or in the [full text](http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3112799.html). The full text does, however, help with this thread: it proposes its own hypotheses for why even lesbians may have had heterosexual sex: Several reasons may explain why lesbian and bisexual teenagers might have heterosexual experience. One hypothesis is related to forced sexual contact, since sexual abuse, incest and rape are more prevalent among lesbian and bisexual young women than among their heterosexual counterparts. A second hypothesis is that many women may have heterosexual relationships and heterosexual intercourse during their early teenage years, before identifying themselves as lesbian or bisexual during late adolescence or their early 20s. However, the age at which women identify themselves as lesbian or bisexual appears to be declining, at least among some urban populations. A third hypothesis is based on the stages of an adolescent’s acquisition of lesbian or bisexual identity. “Heterosexual immersion” may be one strategy for responding to the identity confusion stage of development: “Some adolescents establish heterosexual involvements in hopes of ‘curing’ themselves of their homosexual interests…In some cases, an adolescent girl may purposely become pregnant to prove that she isn’t lesbian.” Researchers have echoed this proposition on the basis of both their own investigations and their clinical experience. Yet another hypothesis considers social stigma and the risks associated with coming out. A review of the literature and discussion of clinical experience reported that gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers who reveal their sexual orientation to others often are rejected or abused by family and friends. These teenagers are more likely than their heterosexual peers to drop out of school and run away from or be forced out of their homes. As with most homeless youth, their principal method of survival is prostitution. The researchers further noted that pregnancy among homeless young women is frequent, a finding confirmed by studies of homeless youth throughout the United States and Canada. The association between alienation or stigma and adolescent pregnancy was borne out by a study of presumably heterosexual adolescents that found an elevated risk of pregnancy among those who have low self-esteem and feel powerless, alienated and in little control over their lives. The one that hasn’t been mentioned in this thread is the increased risk of prostitution, mentioned in the last paragraph. Well, that and being previously unsure of your orientation, but I assume that’s a given. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/high-rates-of-pregnancy-among-gay-teens/727474/16 "2015-08-13T04:33:08Z")
I’ve heard that some gay teens think that having hetro sex will “cure” them. Or that their straight friends think so.