ABSTRACT
Adolescence is a time for learning to establish and maintain healthy relationships. This task is complicated for sexual-minority youths by a hidden sexuality and a hostile community. Homophobia and heterosexism are two arrows aimed at the self-esteem of lesbian and gay youths. Queer kids share the constraints of other adolescents, plus additional constraints somewhat similar to those of ethnic-minority youths without these youths' familial and cultural support. Prostitution and survival sex occur among all youths, especially the homeless. Substance abuse can mediate the anxiety of concealing sexual identity, help to discharge sexual impulses more comfortably, temporarily decrease depression, provide a feeling of power and self-worth, and offer a sense of identity or wholeness. The period between the first same-sex sexual experience or the first self-indication and self-identification as gay and lesbian is extremely difficult emotionally, and most of those who attempt suicide have not yet established a positive sexual identity.
