Our seven-year-old son told he was gay - Today's Parent

Contents:

• COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• CALIFORNIA BOY, 10, WHO CAME OUT AS GAY BEFORE DEATH WAS TORTURED FOR DAYS: PROSECUTORS
• WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHILD SAYS: "I'M GAY"
• YOUR CHILD JT TOLD YOU HE'S GAY. NOW WHAT?
• HOW TO TELL IF YOUR SON IS GAY
• YOUR 9-YEAR-OLD THKS SHE'S GAY
• IS YOUR CHILD GAY?
• OUR SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SON TOLD HE WAS GAY

COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Adam* said was dangero to e out as gay his home untry and feared beg forced to an arranged marriage wh a said he was "so lucky" to wed his soulmate, Ray, Manchter and wish everyone uld marry who they love. There are more than 60 untri wh laws that crimalise same-sex sexual acts acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, cludg Sdi Arabia.

'Authentilly myself'Ray said he had also stggled growg up gay the 1970s and 80s England, which was "tough" said his relig school "dmmed to you, 'you are gog to hell'" Adam returned home to Sdi Arabia, spe beg more than 3, 000 apart and later rtricted by the Covid-19 panmic, they kept touch daily and the romance years ago, Ray proposed on a vio ll and after succsfully applyg for a UK fiancé visa, Adam moved to Manchter December 2022. Adam said he had been aaid to even wear lours his home untry so the first thg he did when he moved was start to "grow my mullet, got my ears pierced and booked appotments for tattoos" relled how, ntrast, one of his gay iends Sdi had been forced to marry a woman, addg: "It has ed not only his life but the life of his wife. The uple, who live London, said a "really betiful memory" was on the way home when one of their sons shouted out of the black b wdow to Trafalgar Square, "My dads jt got married" and cheered "Yay, gay marriage".

He was a sophomore last year at Fort Pierce Wtwood Amy. ”Dannielle Owens-Reid and Krist Rso, -founrs of Everyone Is Gay and -thors of This Is a Book for Parents of Gay Kids, attribute lower g-out ag to the power of reprentatn. The next generatn is growg up wh gay characters on their televisns, pansexual rappers on their playlists, and queer micro-muni on their Tumblr the change also means that there is a new generatn of fai scramblg to raise LGBT kids who have specific needs and challeng — kids who are growg up a society that, while creasgly LGBT-tolerant, is still plagued by hate crim, job discrimatn, and the more banal, everyday sort of homophobia borne by sual ignorance.

CALIFORNIA BOY, 10, WHO CAME OUT AS GAY BEFORE DEATH WAS TORTURED FOR DAYS: PROSECUTORS

“Beg gay was somethg I never really qutned, ” said Chloe Charbonne, a 12-year-old om Stockbridge, Massachetts. ”Like Kate Ree, Chloe spent early childhood sred and nfed about cshg on girls, pecially after beg lled an anti-gay slur for the first time the fourth gra. “From then on, I pretend to like boys, bee I thought that [gay] was a wrong thg to be.

They first intified as gay, then, a few months later, also began intifyg as genrls (as a rult, Chloe now prefers “they” and “them” pronouns).

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHILD SAYS: "I'M GAY"

Amelia, a Midwtern mother of a 10-year-old boy who first began intifyg as gay when he was 7, said that her son’s unabashed outns tends to startle many adults who would rather not thk about children havg sexual sir.

“When they thk of gay people, they thk of sexually active people, ” she said.

YOUR CHILD JT TOLD YOU HE'S GAY. NOW WHAT?

”Amelia, through her blog and teractns wh the adults her gay son’s life, tri to battle this stigma. “As a society, if we n open up our ia to what gay means, we n be a lot ls unfortable wh the ia of children intifyg, ” she said. “Maybe he’s not really gay, ” adults have said to Amelia about her hears all the time too.

“Before this current generatn of kids, children weren’t raised wh gay people, ” Amelia said. “They weren’t raised knowg what gay was. A lot of gay adults say, ‘I knew I was gay when I was krgarten, but I didn’t have the vobulary to scribe what I was.

"A lot of gay adults say, ‘I knew I was gay when I was krgarten, but I didn’t have the vobulary to scribe what I was.

HOW TO TELL IF YOUR SON IS GAY

”A uple of years ago, when she was 11, Kate cycled through the non-straight possibili before g out to her fay — was she gay?

“Consirg how much more fluid the younger generatn is about sexualy, ” she said, “[Informatn about and accs to queer culture] shouldn’t only be ma available to gay intified children — should be [available] to all children.

” Kate’s mother, Ey, driv her to a LGBT youth group town, sce there’s no straight or gay alliance at her is proud of Kate for beg vol about her inty and passnate about LGBT issu.

YOUR 9-YEAR-OLD THKS SHE'S GAY

”In Febary, Amelia blogged about the first time her son was met wh anti-gay sentiment: A boy his class told him that beg gay was illegal (somethg that boy picked up om his parents). Some aren’t homophobic, they’re jt new to the ia.

” In nversatn wh the Uned Stat Interagency Council on Homelsns, Krehely said that “ some ways, this is a good thg — means they are gettg societal cu that is OK to be gay — but they are not old enough to be able to live penntly yet, and they face rejectn by parents and fai, and emotnal and/or physil abe at school. ”Kate’s father me out as gay while Kate was still growg up; he and Ey, Kate’s mother, nsequently divorced. Ey, who wrote about beg the straight spoe of a recently out gay man, creds the experience wh her abily to be a better mother to Kate now than she otherwise might have been.

IS YOUR CHILD GAY?

Wh the World Wi Web at their disposal, many LGBT kids go beyond googlg gay search terms — some are also g technology to nnect wh, and support, queer youth om around the don’t have many queer iends at home Reno, Nevada, but she has plenty on the ter. “People make out beg gay as a whe thg, and ’s awful. The 10-year-old Lanster, California, boy who me out as gay weeks before his ath was allegedly beaten and abed, acrdg to urt documents obtaed by NBC 4 Los Angel.

Officials wh the unty’s Department of Children and Fay Servic, which vtigated 13 prr allegatns of child abe at the boy’s rince between Febary 2013 and April 2016, ially suggted homophobia may have played a role Anthony’s ath, the Los Angel Tim reported. Anthony recently “said he liked boys, ” acrdg to DCFS Deputy Director Brandon Nichols, and Anthony’s nt said would have been a brave move for him to e out as gay his home, the newspaper reported. Chris Bergner told reporters that homophobia, “has not e up our vtigatn as motivatn at this time.

OUR SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SON TOLD HE WAS GAY

1% of 9- and 10-year-olds say that they may be gay, bisexual, or transgenr, acrdg to a new study published JAMA Pediatrics. 2% of the participants said that they were gay or bi, and 0. 7% said that they were “maybe” gay or bi, and 0.