PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, SEPTEMBER 27, 2019
LGBTQ: Unconditional
support is essential
S
(Continued from Page A1)
DRIVE A LITTLE – SAVE A BUNCH!
3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE • SALEM
MORE INFO AT NORTHERNLIGHTSTHEATREPUB.COM
OPEN CAPTION SHOWING
Aladdin (PG)
Wednesday, Sept 25
SAT, OCT 5
Toy Story 4
(PG)
11:00 AM
TICKETS ARE JUST $4
SPECIAL SHOWING FOR KIDS
AND ADULTS WITH AUTISM OR
OTHER SENSORY SENSITIVITIES.
6 PM, TICKETS ARE $4/EACH.
Special showing with captioning
shown on screen with the movie.
LIVE STAND UP COMEDY
Lights, Comedy, Laughs!
Saturday, October 12
CHARLIE WIENER & MONICA NEVI will
perform at 7pm and 9pm. Admission is only
$10. Ages 21 & over only. Reserved seating for
this show. Purchase tickets at box offi ce or at
our website.
Today in History
140,000 Polish troops are taken prisoner by the German
invaders as Warsaw surrenders to the superior mechanized
forces of Hitler’s army. The Poles fought bravely, but were
able to hold on for only 26 days. On the heels of its victory,
the Germans began a systematic program of terror, murder,
and cruelty, executing members of Poland’s middle and
upper classes: Doctors, teachers, priests, landowners, and
businessmen were rounded up and killed. The Roman
Catholic Church, too, was targeted. In one west Poland
church diocese alone, 214 priests were shot. And hundreds
of thousands more Poles were driven from their homes and
relocated east, as Germans settled in the vacated areas.
— September 27, 1939
Food 4 Thought
“The right to do something does not mean that doing it is
right. ”
— William Safi re, presidential speechwriter
and columnist, died Sept. 27, 2009
The Weeks Ahead
Through Saturday, October 12
Willamette University Theatre presents Men on Boats by
Jaclyn Backhaus. For more details visit willamette.edu/
arts/theatre.
Saturday, September 27 – Monday, September 30
Oregon Symphony, led by conductor Carlos Kalmar,
presents Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, with pianist Garrick
Ohlsson. The evening also includes Mozart’s Piano
Concerto No. 25. Visit www.orsymphonysalem.org to
purchase tickets and for more details.
Tuesday, October 1
Free admission all day at Hallie Ford Museum of Art, 700
State Street. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Pollinator Conservation Short Course from 9 a.m.-5
p.m. at Minto Island Growers, 3394 Brown Island Road
S., Salem, OR 97302, is a full day workshop that focuses
on protecting and enhancing population of pollinators,
especially bees, in agricultural landscapes. Space is
limited. The cost is $25 and registration fee of $2.47.
Register at tinyurl.com/y62dk8pr.
Thursday, October 3 – Tuesday, October 29
Keizer Art Association’s October show is Colors of
Autumn. An artists’ reception will be held at the Enid
Joy Mount Gallery 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5. Gallery
hours are 1-4 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. on Saturday. keizerarts.com.
Friday, October 4
The Nightmare Factory opens at 7 p.m. Open Friday and
Saturday through November 4. Tickets are $20 each.
nightmarefactorysalem.com.
Saturday, October 5
McNary High School’s class of 1979 will hold their 40-year
reunion at the Keizer Civic Center. For more information,
go to mcnary79.net or email the reunion committee at
mcnaryclassof79@gmail.com.
Sunday, October 6
“Finding the Psalms in Our Hymns” a hymn festival led
by Dr. Carl P. Daw, a professor of theology at Boston
University. There will be a choir and brass ensemble
conducted by Paul Klemme. 4-5 p.m. at St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church, 1444 Liberty Street SE, Salem.
Wednesday, October 9
Elsinore Theatre’s Wednesday Film Series presents
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Admission is
$6 or $40 for 8 admissions.
Friday, October 11 – Sunday, November 3
Enlightened Theatrics presents The Rocky Horror Picture
Show. Visit the box offi ce or EnlightenedTheatrics.org for
tickets and more information.
Friday – Sunday, October 11 – 13
and Friday – Sunday, October 18 – 20
Sorry, Wrong Number / The Hitchhiker, two one-
act plays by Lucille Fletcher. Staged reading at Keizer
Homegrown Theatre at the Keizer Cultural Center, 980
Chemawa Rd. N.E. Tickets are $10; free admission for
Oregon Trail card holders. Performances at 7 p.m. Fridays
and Saturdays; 2 p.m. on Sundays.Visit Facebook.com/
keizerhomegrowntheatre for more information.
Saturday, October 12
The Historic Elsinore Theatre presents Aureum by
Halcyon Shows, an aerial and acrobatic adventure tale,
7:30 p.m. Tickets range rom $35 to $55. elsinoretheatre.
com.
Thursday, October 17
McNary Hall of Fame Banquet will be held from 5:30 -
8:30 p.m. at Quality Suites, 5188 Wittenberg Lane, Keizer.
Ticket pricing are $60 for individuals, $100 for couples,
$350 for a reserved table of seven and event sponsorship
is $1,000. Contact gragg_scott@salkeiz.k12.or.us or visit
http://cm.keizerchamber.com/events/details/mcnary-
hall-of-fame-banquet-26716 for more details.
Friday, October 18 – Saturday, November 9
Pentacle theatre presents Mothers and Sons. Visit
pentacletheatre.org for more information about the play.
Wednesday, October 23
Community dinner at St. Edward Catholic Church, 5 p.m.
Free to the public.
Add your event by e-mailing reporter@keizertimes.com
past year working to bring the
Family Acceptance Project to
Oregon. The Family Accep-
tance project is an initiative to
educate parents and those who
work with kids on the impact
of rejecting the identity of their
kids when they come out as
queer.
The project, created by San
Francisco State University, is
informed by a study conducted
by the university. The study ex-
amines the differences in how
parents think about and treat
their LGBTQ+ kids and how
their kids feel about that treat-
ment.
“It has identifi ed a whole se-
ries of behaviors that LGBTQ
youth experience as rejecting,
that families may actually think
protect their children,” said An-
nette Marcus, the state suicide
prevention liaison for the alli-
ance.
The Family Acceptance
Project study elaborated upon
how that dissonance occurs be-
tween intention and outcome.
“Many parents believe that
the best way to help their gay
or transgender children thrive
as adults is to help them try to
fi t in with their heterosexual
peers. This may mean trying
to change their child’s sexual
orientation or gender identity,”
the SFSU study authors wrote.
“It also often means prevent-
ing them from learning about
homosexuality or from fi nding
gay or transgender resources to
help them develop a positive
sense of the future as a gay or
transgender adult.”
According to the study,
physically abusive behaviors are
just as detrimental to a young
person’s wellbeing as emotional
rejections, like preventing them
from learning about queer
identities or discouraging kids
from making queer friends.
“Parents think they are help-
ing their children survive in a
world they feel will never ac-
cept them by trying to prevent
them from learning about or
from being gay. But adolescents
feel as if their parents don’t love
them, are ashamed of them or
even hate them,” the SFSU
study found.
Marcus said in her experi-
ence at the crossroads of sui-
cide prevention and LGBTQ+
youth, most families don’t real-
ly understand the impact their
outlook toward their child’s
identity can have on them, even
if it doesn’t result in physical
abuse or abandonment of the
child.
“Obviously there’s fami-
lies out there that have pushed
their kids out into the street
and done really awful things,”
she said. “But mostly families
want what’s best for their kids,
and don’t understand that they
are potentially seriously harm-
ing their children” when they
make remarks that are dispar-
aging toward their LGBTQ+
kid’s identity.
“When you reject your
LGBTQ youth, you are literal-
ly putting your child at risk for
suicide,” Marcus said.
These rejections of identity
go far beyond a child’s percep-
tion of their sexuality or gender
identity, the study found.
“Young people feel that by
rejecting their gay or transgen-
der identity – a very core part
of who they are as a person –
their parents are rejecting all
of who they are. Instead, these
very different ideas about how
best to help their gay children
lead to family confl ict and in-
crease the adolescent’s distress
and loss of hope,” the SFSU
study found.
Rejection of LGBTQ+ kids,
the study found, has a lasting
impact on the child’s ability to
live a healthy and productive
life. Among other fi ndings, the
report correlated rejection of
an LGBTQ+ child’s identity
with increased risk of suicide
attempts and depression. Youth
who are “highly rejected” by
their families, the report found,
were “more than eight times as
likely to have attempted sui-
cide” and “nearly six times as
likely to report high levels of
depression.”
Acceptance of an LGBTQ+
youth’s identity can’t start once
the child comes out as gay or
transgender, either. Parents
need to be aware that their
child can be impacted by the
stray homophobic or transpho-
bic comment at any age.
“I think parents need to re-
member, even when they have
a 5-year-old, you don’t know
which if one of your children
might be gay,” Marcus said. “So
the way you’re talking about
gays, lesbians, the LGBTQ
community - your child could
be hearing [those comments] as
being about them even when
you don’t realize that.”
What’s also notable about
the study, Marcus added, is
that parents don’t have to be
LGBTQ+ advocates to de-
crease their gay or transgender
child’s risk of mental health
concerns.
“Even small amounts of be-
ing more accepting have prov-
en to have long term benefi cial
outcomes,” she said.
Family support is crucial for
LGBTQ+ young people, who
are also twice as likely as their
straight and cisgender peers to
be bullied at school or threat-
ened with a weapon. The sur-
vey also found that LGBTQ+
young people were also “three
times as likely to have stayed
home from school because
they were afraid for their safety
at school.”
That makes safe spaces im-
portant for young people –
both in their own home, but
also in places that are specifi -
cally geared toward those who
identify as they do. These spac-
es are often not readily available
– for example, Salem-Keizer
Public Schools only has two
active Gay-Straight Alliance
clubs. That means parents
should take an active role in
accepting their children and
surrounding them with other
supportive people as well.
Surviving a
Mental Health Crisis
As more young people struggle with mental health, it
becomes even more crucial for bystanders to understand
how to support them.
Listen non-judgmentally
Acknowledge that what the person
is feeling is real, and be
empathetic and accepting
Ask about
even though you
suicidal thoughts
may not agree.
If you think there is a chance to
intervene, ask the person directly
if they are thinking of killing themselves.
If they say “no,” ask again. Someone
might be able to shrug off the
fi rst inquiry, it’s harder the
Ask about plans
second time.
If they say, “yes,” ask if they
have decided how, when and if
they’ve gotten the things they need to
pull it off. The more answers they have,
the closer they are to an attempt.
Do not leave them alone if you
believe self-harm or harm
Encourage professional,
to others is imminent.
self-help
Call 9-1-1 if it’s too
Help them explore activities
big to handle.
that might bolster their mental health,
from therapy to hotlines to regular
exercise. The most important protective
factor for a youth against a mental health
crisis is feeling close to at least one adult.
The number for the National
Suicide Prevention Lifeline is
Investigate mental
1-800-273-8255.
health fi rst aid
Mental Health First Aid is a free,
eight-hour crash course in what to do
when someone you know, love, or barely know,
is experiencing a mental health crisis.
A full list of upcoming free classes in the area can be
found at www.mentalhealthfi rstaid.org.
“For LGBTQ youth to have
a network of people who are
unequivocally supportive, and
had some shared life experi-
ence, is just an incredibly im-
portant kind of foundation for
them for the rest of life,” Mar-
cus said. “Your children want
to be celebrated for who they
are and it’s important for par-
ents to listen to their children
about what their needs are and
who they need to have as com-
munity.”
When LGBTQ+ young
people don’t have that founda-
tion, it impacts their ability to
see themselves succeeding later
in life.
Due to lasting stigma and
ostracization, LGBTQ+ youth
can “feel like they don’t have a
future, they don’t have hope or
their family doesn’t want them,
and so having spaces that em-
phasize their value is really cru-
cial,” Marcus said.
And while Marcus’s work in
suicide prevention can be de-
pressing, she said, there’s also an
upside: seeing people make it
out of the dark places and into
a better state of mind. But that
doesn’t come without support.
“What we need to be point-
ing out to young people is their
resilience and helping them to
see ways to get through the
hard time,” Marcus said. “All of
us are going to experience hard
times, but you can get through
them.”
The Family Acceptance
Project has created informa-
tional materials for parents of
LGBTQ+ youth. Those mate-
rials can be accessed at family-
project.sfsu.edu/
For parents, friends, and al-
lies of LGBTQ+ youth inter-
ested in advocacy and support,
PFLAG meetings are held the
second Monday and fourth
Saturday of every month. For
more information on the orga-
nization and its meeting times,
visit PFLAG Salem’s Facebook
page.
Next week: Learn about mental
health resources available to strug-
gling young people and how adults
can use their stories of survival to
help today’s teens.
hometown news
U.S. Air Force Airman An-
gel L. Hudson graduated from
basic military training at Joint
Base San Antonio-Lackland,
San Antonio, Texas.
The airman completed an
intensive, eight-week, multi-
discipline program.
Airmen who complete
basic training also earn four
credits toward an associate
in applied science degree
through the Community Col-
lege of the Air Force.
Hudson is the daughter of
Stacey and Nicole Hudson of
Keizer. She is a 2019 graduate
of McNary High School.
maze
looking
back in
the KT
3893 COMMERCIAL ST SE
THIS WEEK’S
MOVIE TIMES
47 Meters Uncaged (PG-13)
Fri 6:40, 8:30,
Sat 5:00, 8:55, Sun 6:50
Dora and The Lost
City of Gold (PG)
Fri 3:50, Sat 11:45, 4:20, 12:25, 2:25
Toy Story 4 (G)
Fri 2:00, 4:10, Sat 12:00, 2:00, 4:00,
Sun 12:00, 1:55, 3:50
Spiderman Extended Far From
Home (PG-13)
Fri 4:05, 6:15, 8:45, Sat 1:45, 6:00,
8:30, Sun 5:50, 8:20
The Kitchen (R) Sat 6:50, Sun
8:35
Angry Brids Movie 2 (PG)
Fri 2:55, Sun 3:05
Yesterday (PG-13) Fri 8:15, Sun 12:50
Aladdin (PG)
Fri 1:45, 5:50, Sat 12:30, 6:25,
Sun 4:25, 7:25
Rocketman (R) Fri 1:30, Sat 8:50
Men in Black: Intn’l (PG-13)
Sun 5:10
FOR ALL SHOWTIMES GO TO
NORTHERNLIGHTSTHEATREPUB.COM
5 YEARS AGO
Slick licks at McNary
High School
Dakota Bradley gets up-close-
and-personal with the crowd at
a High School Nation concert
hosted by McNary High School.
10 YEARS AGO
Health on wheels
A handful of city employees
are participating in the Bike
Commute Challenge this
September.
Maze by Jonathan Graf of Keizer
sudoku
15 YEARS AGO
Developers ready
to break ground for
Keizer Station
The fi rst shovels of dirt will be
turned next week to signal the
offi cial start of construction of
the Keizer Station Project.
20 YEARS AGO
District seeks extra
cash for costly
Keizer schools
School district offi cials are
recommending
that
the
two new schools go up in
Southeast Keizer as originally
planned – despite sharply
higher costs.
Enter digits
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of each digit.
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