fferent from their peers, they do not perceive themselves as sexually different, because they have no concept of the words gay, lesbian, or bisexual.AdolescenceBy far, most of the studies done are on adolescence primarily because it is between adolescence and young adulthood when a person really deals with their sexuality. According to Beaty (1999), during adolescence, the homosexual individual is in the second of four stages, which is identification confusion. During this stage, the individual realizes he/she may be homosexual. Males seem to reach this self-identity about one and one half years sooner than females, although they started the process at about the same time (Rosario, 1996). Typically during this stage, the individual will feel troubled by his/her feelings and deny his/her homosexual orientation and assume heterosexual roles. It is also during this time that many adolescents begin abusing drugs and alcohol, attempt suicide, run away from home, or drop out of school (Dempsey, 1994). The rate of self-reported suicide attempts among bisexual and homosexual males in the age group of 12 – 14 years of age was 28.1% and 20.5% of bisexual and homosexual females of the same age group. Homosexual males are 7 times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual males. Homosexual females are twice as likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual females (Remafedi, et al, 1998). In fact, homosexual youth suicide accounts for 30% of all teen suicides. The average age of the first attempt was 15 years old and of these, 30% did so the same year they identified themselves as homosexuals (Dempsey, 1994).During this time of emotional turmoil, many homosexual adolescents turn to drugs and alcohol to alleviate their pain. In a clinical trial of gay teens, 58% reported that they regularly abused substances (Dempsey, 1994). In a sample of 136 males and 80 females, 48.2% of the males were reported heavy drinkers, more than 5 dri...
