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SYDNEY newspaper The Daily Telegraph has come under fire on social media for a spread and article suggesting that being LGBTI is a health issue among secondary schoolkids.


Below the headline “Fat chance of being healthy”, Telegraph staffer Rose Brennan lists statistics regarding childhood obesity and drug and alcohol use among teenagers.

In the centre of the page Brennan writes, “16.8% of secondary school students in Australia are attracted to people of the same sex as them or to both sexes”.

Above, a sub-heading states, “Young Aussies only have themselves to blame”.

The spread also lists a statistic stating that 12.2 per cent of 16-to-24 year old males and 21.6 per cent of females in the same age bracket experience “high or very high psychological distress”.

The article draws from a NSW state government report canvassing young people to help determine a framework to address the needs of the nearly 1.3 million young people in the state.

Social demographer Mark McCrindle is quoted in the story, calling the sexuality statistics “extremely high”.

“It is almost 10 times the national figure. It’s about their life stage, they are working out where they are at … It’s a time of great flux.”

The Australia Bureau of Statistics collected data on sexual attraction for the first time in its General Social Survey in 2015.

The survey found that 3 per cent of Australia’s adult population identified as gay, lesbian, or other.

Australian Greens Senator Janet Rice weighed in on the story, calling on the Daily Telegraph to retract it and apologise.

“To all the young people or parents of gay or bisexual teens that opened up the Daily Telegraph to read that diverse sexuality is a health problem, I am so sorry,” she said.

“This is no doubt extremely distressing and sends a message that there is something wrong with them or their kids.

“This reads like an ill-informed article from the last century. It is 2017, we should not be reading this sort of stuff in our newspapers.”

Here’s a better photo. I am still absolutely stunned. How many people approved this before it went to print? pic.twitter.com/Ac8kMTTZtC — Sally Rugg (@sallyrugg) July 12, 2017

According to the @dailytelegraph,being a LGBTQI teen is bad for your health. Akin to smoking/excess drinking. I CAN’T. What is this fuckery? pic.twitter.com/65kv9BIzZD — Em Rusciano (@EmRusciano) July 12, 2017

Aside from claiming same-sex attraction is a health risk, the Tele also buried lede that same-sex attraction is higher than often claimed — Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) July 11, 2017