STUDY: LGB Teens Need Birth Control Info Too

These teens appear to be at greater risk for pregnancy than straight teenagers, a new study indicates.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

May 19 2015 6:00 AM EST

November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST

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If a teenager identifies as gay or lesbian, don't assume he or she doesn't need information about preventing unwanted pregnancies.

That's the message of a new study, which found that gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens appear to be at greater risk of becoming pregnant or impregnating a partner than those who are straight.

Many teens who identify as gay or lesbian have had opposite-sex partners, researchers Lisa Lindley of George Mason University and Katrina Walsemann of the University of South Carolina noted to the New York Daily News, and those who seldom have sex with an opposite-sex partner may think the risk of pregnancy is low when they do so.

"We don't know the circumstances," Lindley told the Daily News.

Lindley and Walsemann of the University of South Carolina based their study on three years' worth of surveys the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted on 10,000 New York City teens. Of the entire sample, 14.3 percent of female teens had experienced a pregnancy, and 10.8 percent of males had impregnated a partner. But the numbers were higher for gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens.

The findings indicate that all teens need comprehensive sex education, including information on how to prevent pregnancy, no matter how they identify, the researchers said. "Just because someone identifies as gay, you don't know," Lindley told the Daily News. "We want people not to make assumptions."