Gays and Drugs - A Deadly Combination
By Andy Heath
One stereotype of homosexuality is the idea that gay teenagers and young adults are more likely to involve themselves in substance abuse. I have walked around gay clubs in Nashville and asked friends how these young gay people could stay so skinny, and one time a friend told me that many of them are on the crystal meth diet.
I run into gay people all the time that abuse drugs. At the very least, they smoke pot. At the worst, they abuse deadlier drugs like heroine, cocaine, and crystal meth.
Now I am by no means going to accuse the Christians of being behind the drug abuse of gay teenagers - not directly anyway. I will say that the stress that Christians put on gay teenagers can certainly lead to drug abuse simply because these gay teenagers want to escape the pain of being gay in Christians' straight world. I will also say that drug abuse helps the Christians' cause of preventing us from exercising our God-given rights such as marrying someone we're in love with because drug abuse prevents gay people from realizing their full potential. When gays do not realize their full potential, we lose great gay artists, politicians, educators, and business people. Drug abuse means we do not make the mark on society that we are capable of making, and we therefore have a lower place in the eyes of straight people.
It also means we're less likely to vote, and those who vote have the ears of the politicians.
It might seem a bit cliché to say that gays should strive not to abuse drugs, but this is even more important for us than it is for straight people. Like it or not, we have something to prove. We have to make a difference in the world in order to gain the respect of others. We have to work twice as hard as straight people and have four times the courage just to make a happy life for ourselves.
I know life is hard for us as gays. Our families sometimes disown us. Our friends don't want to talk to us anymore. We even abuse and are abused by each other. Our churches no longer accept us. But we must try to make it without our drugs. We must still try to make that contribution to the world so we can one day gain the rights that Christians and straight people so adamantly deny us.
