When my son told he was gay, I wanted to protect him om the meanns of the world, but I also uldn’t image askg him to hi who he really is.
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?
Gay kids are g out earlier — sometim middle school — and many are fdg acceptance. But some parents and teachers wonr if the kids are too young to really know their sexual orientatn. * can 10 year old be 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.
COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Gay youth often face their set of challeng after g out about their genr preferenc. * can 10 year old be gay *
Related: Y, a 9-year-old n know they are gay.
10 YEAR OLD SON HAS TOLD ME HE THKS HE'S GAY
* can 10 year old be gay *
7% said that their 9- or 10-year-old child is “maybe” gay or bi, and another 1. Calvo said that the data n be ed to help fight homophobia and transphobia.
GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"
A Mnota school district is facg a Department of Jtice vtigatn and a private lawsu over s alleged failure to bat antigay bullyg.... * can 10 year old be gay *
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. 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.
EARLY SIGNS TO TELL YOUR CHILD IS GAY
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.
OUR SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SON TOLD HE WAS GAY
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. Given that a small proportn of the populatn is homosexual, prospective studi require a large number of children.
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.
WHEN DO GAY KIDS START “ACTG GAY”?
The thors found that “those targets who, as adults, intified themselv as homosexual were judged to be genr nonnformg as children.
YOUR 9-YEAR-OLD THKS SHE'S GAY
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. 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.