Contents:
WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT BEG GAY?: PERSPECTIV OM YOUTH
Published fal eded form as:PMCID: PMC3326393NIHMSID: NIHMS358675AbstractThis article explor gay and bisexual male adolcents’ posive perceptns of their sexual orientatn inty. In-pth qualative terviews were nducted wh an ethnilly diverse sample of 63 gay/bisexual male adolcents Chigo (N=42) and Miami (N=21). Data revealed two major nceptual tegori: 1) posive personal nceptualizatns of beg gay/bisexual, and 2) riliency the face of gay-related opprsn.
Addnal primary them and sub-them were intified wh each tegory that further illtrate how gay/bisexual youth were able to velop posive nceptualizatns of their sexual orientatn spe experiencg negative societal msag about beg gay/bisexual. Implitns for the velopment of terventns to promote the health and well-beg of gay/bisexual male youth are discsed. Keywords: Bisexual, gay, male, riliency, sexual orientatn, youthAdolcence is a velopmental perd where young people are maturg physilly, emotnally and socially as they transn to adulthood (Erikson, 1980; Hill, 1983).
When the fluenc are negative, psychologil distrs among adolcents may rult, pecially for those youth who intify as lbian, gay, or bisexual (Almeida, Johnson, Corliss, Molnar & Azrael, 2009; Hershberger & D’Augelli, 1995; Ueno, 2005). Th, this article tak a rilience-based approach to examg sexual orientatn inty among gay/bisexual male adolcents by sharg their perceptns regardg the posive aspects of beg gay/bisexual. S., gay and bisexual dividuals reported higher equenci of day-to-day and lifetime discrimatn experienc as pared to their heterosexual unterparts.