Garfield's comment didn't sit well with the LGBT community, in part because of the challenges people already face. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people 10 to 24, and lesbian, gay and bisexual teens are four times more likely than their straight peers to attempt it, according to the Trevor Project. About 40 percent of homeless young people are LGBT.
LGBT Americans often have trouble finding health care and are also often the targets of hate crimes-in 2007, the FBI dealt with more than 7,600 such incidents, and nearly a fifth of them were motivated by sexual orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
