Baseball Makes Progress on LGBTQ Support--Mostly

Mets.com/The N.Y. Mets for once beat the Yankees with a successful LGBTQ Pride Night.

"Remember the turtle," a boss once said to me. I had to ask him to explain. "We're like turtles," he replied. "The turtle can't move forward without sticking its head out of its shell."

Pride Nights have been Major League Baseball's slow motion effort to move forward in support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights. The first event was held 16 years ago by the Tampa Bay Rays. In 2022 two of baseball's thirty professional teams are not hosting Pride Nights. Sadly, the iconic New York Yankees being one.

The Yankees crosstown rivals, the Mets, however, just held their largest and most successful Pride Night, their sixth annual event. Members of the gay community were pleased with the full support of the team's management for a program that was well organized and supported by comments of several players and their manager, Buck Showalter. One player, Mark Canha, tweeted that he welcomed "his beautiful LGBTQ fans" to the Mets Pride Night. 

Athletics.com/The Oakland A's celebrated Glenn Burke Pride Night.

Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants jointly celebrated a Pride Night at in the same game in San Francisco. The Dodgers previously held their pride night in Los Angeles, in which they honored the legacy of Glenn Burke, the first openly gay major league player. The Oakland Athletics honored Burke, as well. The team honored their alumnus by naming their event in his memory. The online magazine, The Athletic, reported during the week that one major league free agent, pitcher Liam Hendriks, based off-season signing decision at least partly on whether a prospective team was planning to hold a Pride Night.

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All did not go well, however, in Tampa Bay. Five of the team's players refused to participate, citing religious objections, and declined to wear rainbow colored caps and arm patches. Symbolically, they ripped the patches off their uniforms and wore the team's traditional cap. Ironically, two of the five players, all pitchers, participated in the evening's game and were responsible for the team's loss.

“It Gets Better” Is Bad Advice For Gay Kids, Study Claims

June is LGBT Pride month, a commemoration of the struggle for gay rights. It honors the Stonewall uprising that took place in New York City in June, 1969

"Asking youth to accept negative experiences as the only coping strategy potentially exacerbates stress," claims researchers at the University of Arizona.

 

“It Gets Better” Is Bad Advice For Gay Kids, Study Claims (Excerpted from NewNowNext.com.)

Dan Avery 5/15/2017

The It Gets Better projects was launched by Dan Savage and Terry Miller in 2010, in response to a chilling number of suicides by LGBT teens facing bullying. Since then, it’s added more than 50,000 videos from people of all walks of life.
   
But a new study suggests imagining a better future may not be an ideal coping mechanism for struggling teens—and may, in fact, do more harm than good.

University of Arizona professor Russell Toomey and his team examined profiles of 245 lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) young adults to see how they coped with sexual-minority stress during adolescence. Three common strategies emerged: Cognitive strategies (the “It Gets Better” approach), alternative-seeking strategies (changing social circles or schools), and “LGB-specific” strategies (joining a gay-straight alliance).

Young people who sought out LGB-specific strategies reported better psychosocial adjustment and were more likely to graduate high school. Cognitive and alternative-seeking strategies were associated with poorer adjustment, higher incidents of depression and lower self-esteem. Alternative-seeking strategies were even linked to lower likelihood of finishing high school.

“Our findings question the ’It Gets Better’ narrative that’s been given to LGB youth,” said Toomey. “Asking youth to accept negative experiences as the only coping strategy potentially exacerbates stress.”

Alternative-seeking strategies, like changing schools, put the onus on the victim, says Toomey.
“The child who has a different sexuality or gender identity expression is then labeled as the problem instead of really addressing the issue,” he explains. “Alternative-seeking strategies involve finding new spaces to thrive in, rather than coping with the space that you’re in… Our results find that that’s associated with more depressive symptoms, less self-esteem and less satisfaction in life.”

“Everybody needs support, and it’s really important, particularly in adolescence, to find other people who are like you, since you are going through, developmentally, a stage where you may frequently think that you’re the only one that’s experiencing whatever you’re experiencing. Having a support group where other people look like you and experience the same thing as you is really important for health, well-being, development and sense of identity.”

Toomey’s findings, based on data from San Francisco State University’s Family Acceptance Project, will be published in the Journal of Homosexuality.

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Praise for Healing the Brain

"A book that can help medical professionals as well as the general public, Mr. Balog has tackled a subject that is complex and he makes it quite approachable. It has added and enriched my own practice of medicine by making me more aware of issues not often discussed in medical circles."--Peter Paganussi, MD, Virginia

"Author David Balog has done an excellent job of creating a book for educators (or anyone working with youth) that explains the complicated workings of the brain in an easy to understand manner. Balog goes on to discuss various types of trauma and how the adolescent brain responds to trauma such as depression, stress, addiction, risk taking, PTSD, etc. LGBT/Q youth may experience trauma in ways majority youth often do not. The author shares important coping strategies....I highly recommend this book!"--Carol Dopp, M.Ed. 

"David Balog understands the strain of alienation, so he tackles this subject with compassion and concern. Mr. Balog draws on his knowledge of brain science to give readers insight into what happens to young people under tremendous stress, and he offers practical advice on how to help and cope."--Gary Cottle, author

"Provides comfort and learning to the reader. Flows easily from one topic to the next and knits tidbits of information together in a unifying mosaic. Easy to read. Difficult to put down." --Michael J. Colucciello, Jr., New York State Dept. of Mental Health researcher, retired.

 

"Well researched, fleshed out with relevant case histories, this book packs a lot of solid information into its 152 pages. Written in an engaging style for the layman, it covers a wide range of topics. One learns a great deal about the biology of stress, particularly the vulnerability of the brain in the pre-adult years. This book also provides a glossary of key brain science terms and a listing of organizations serving the LGBT /Q community and resources on the brain."--Gary Bordzuk, librarian