Early signs to tell your child is gay | Tim of India

Contents:

• IS YOUR CHILD GAY?
• COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• 10 YEAR OLD SON HAS TOLD ME HE THKS HE'S GAY
• GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"
• EARLY SIGNS TO TELL YOUR CHILD IS GAY
• OUR SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SON TOLD HE WAS GAY
• WHEN DO GAY KIDS START “ACTG GAY”?
• YOUR 9-YEAR-OLD THKS SHE'S GAY

IS YOUR CHILD 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.

26% were found to be gay, bi, or transgenr. Related: Y, a 9-year-old n know they are gay. 7% said that their 9- or 10-year-old child is “maybe” gay or bi, and another 1.

COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Calvo said that the data n be ed to help fight homophobia and transphobia.

Gay ndidate Chris Pappas ws the Democratic primary for U. This stunt needs 6 creds to graduate, but his school won’t let him bee he’s gay.

10 YEAR OLD SON HAS TOLD ME HE THKS HE'S GAY

Both lbians and gay men often have a history of cross-sex-typed behavrs: ltle boys beg fatuated wh their mother's makp k; ltle girls enamored of field hockey or profsnal wrtlg. Prehomosexual boys tend to be more attracted to solary sports such as swimmg, cyclg and tennis than they are to rougher ntact sports such as football and soccer. Children who show pronounced sex-atypil behavrs may have more of a geic loadg to their homosexualy.

The behavral patterns are feared, loathed and often spoken of directly as harbgers of adult homosexualy. It is only relatively recently, however, that velopmental scientists have nducted ntrolled studi to intify the earlit and most reliable signs of adult homosexualy. In lookg refully at the childhoods of gay adults, rearchers are fdg an trigug set of behavral ditors that homosexuals seem to have mon.

Curly enough, the age-old homophobic fears of many parents reflect some genue predictive currency. Zucker, both psychologists, published a semal paper on childhood markers of homosexualy 1995. So on the basis of some earlier, shakier rearch, along wh a good dose of mon sense, Bailey and Zucker hypothized that homosexuals would show an verted pattern of sex-typed childhood behavrs—ltle boys preferrg girls as playmat and beg fatuated wh their mother's makp k; ltle girls strangely enamored of field hockey or profsnal wrtlg—that sort of thg.

GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"

Given that a small proportn of the populatn is homosexual, prospective studi require a large number of children.

EARLY SIGNS TO TELL YOUR CHILD IS GAY

Although only 12 percent of the women grew up to be genr dysphoric (the unfortable sense that your blogil sex do not match your genr), the odds of the women reportg a bisexual or homosexual orientatn were up to 23 tim higher than would occur a general sample of young women.

And the same holds for gay men. Bailey and Zucker, who nducted a retrospective study which adults answered qutns about their past, revealed that 89 percent of randomly sampled gay men relled cross-sex-typed childhood behavrs exceedg the heterosexual median.

OUR SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SON TOLD HE WAS GAY

The thors found that “those targets who, as adults, intified themselv as homosexual were judged to be genr nonnformg as children. There is also evince of a “dosage effect”: the more genr-nonnformg characteristics there are childhood, the more likely is that a homosexual or bisexual orientatn will be prent adulthood.

Not all ltle boys who like to wear drs grow up to be gay, nor do all ltle girls who spise drs bee lbians. I took to middle school wrtlg as a rather scrawny 80-pound eighth grar, and so dog, ironilly beme all too nsc of my homosexual orientatn.

Cross-cultural data show that prehomosexual boys are more attracted to solary sports such as swimmg, cyclg and tennis than they are to rougher ntact sports such as football and soccer; they are also ls likely to be childhood bulli.

WHEN DO GAY KIDS START “ACTG GAY”?

Rearchers readily nce that there are que likely multiple—and no doubt extremely plited—velopmental rout to adult homosexualy. Bee the data often reveal very early emergg tras prehomosexuals, children who show pronounced sex-atypil behavrs may have more of a geic loadg to their homosexualy, whereas gay adults who were sex-typil as children might trace their homosexualy more directly to particular childhood experienc.

Why do parents worry so much about whether their child may or may not be gay?

All else beg equal, I spect we would be hard-prsed to fd parents who would actually prefer their offsprg to be homosexual.

YOUR 9-YEAR-OLD THKS SHE'S GAY

Evolutnarily, parental homophobia is a no-braer: gay sons and lbian dghters are not likely to reproduce (unls they get creative). Lang, Elton John and Rachel Maddow's close relativ, but I n only image that the straight k are far better off terms of their own reproductive opportuni than they would be whout a homosexual danglg so magnificently on their fay tre. So cultivate your ltle prehomosexual's native talents, and your ultimate geic payoff uld, strangely enough, be even larger wh one very special gay child than would be if 10 medcre straight offsprg leaped om your los.

I n say as a once prehomosexual pipsqueak that some preparatn on the part of others would have ma easier on me, rather than nstantly fearg rejectn or worryg about some rels slipup leadg to my “exposure. And another thg: mt be pretty hard to look to your prehomosexual toddler's limpid ey, bsh away the okie cmbs om her cheek and toss her out on the streets for beg article was origally published wh the tle "Is Your Child Gay? Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientatn.