A CHILDS RIGHT TO BE GAY - ADDRESSING THE EMOTIONAL MALTREATMENT OF QUEER YOUTH

Queer youth constitute an isolated and invisible population severely i n need of help from all segments of society. They are harassed and rej ected by their peers, the media, and the public in general. Queer yout h are the most at-risk population of adolescents for suicide, homeless ness, substance abuse, prostitution, and HIV infection. Most criticall y, queer youth often do not receive the necessary familial support nee ded to cope in such an environment. To the contrary, they are emotiona lly maltreated by their parents more often than any other group of ado lescents. The author asserts that it is imperative for the legal syste m to help queer youth by recognizing the severity of emotional abuse d irected at a child's sexual orientation. She begins by examining the c auses and effects of parental maltreatment of queer youth. She then ar gues that the current denial of emotional abuse of queer youth by pare nts results from four factors: (1) the general disregard in the legal system for psychological child abuse; (2) the institutional dominance of heterosexuality; (3) the belief that a child's sexual orientation i s mutable; and (4) the parental rights doctrine. Finally, the paper su ggests statutory recognition of emotional abuse directed at a child's sexual orientation as a form of child abuse.