Comg Out: A Parents Gui to Supportg Your Gay Teen | HuffPost Life

Contents:

• WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT GAY TEENAGERS
• THE NEW GAY TEENAGER
• GAY TEENS ON TV: A TIMELE
• WATCH A TEENAGE BOY FD A STACK OF GAY PORN IN ADAM BARAN’S ADORABLE SHORT FILM ‘JACKPOT’
• COMG OUT: A PARENTS GUI TO SUPPORTG YOUR GAY TEEN

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT GAY TEENAGERS

Over the past year, the news has been filled wh stori of the suici among gay teenagers who’ve suffered bullyg om their peers.

And there’s no doubt that some gay teenagers suffer more emotnal distrs than straight on.

THE NEW GAY TEENAGER

Rch Sav-Williams, profsor of Human Development at the College of Human Elogy and director of Cornell’s Sex and Genr Lab, has wrten a book that vers the topics lled The New Gay Teenager. In the book, Sav-Williams mak the pot that is much easier to get grants to study clil problems and treatment, meang that gay teenagers whout health or emotnal problems have fallen unr the radar of most amic studi.

We don’t hear about normal gay teens, ” he told the New York Tim for an article earlier this year.

A large number of studi found no group differenc between gay and straight youth, but the have not been published.

GAY TEENS ON TV: A TIMELE

“I’m ncerned about the msage beg given to gay youth by adults who say they are sted to be prsed, abe dgs or perhaps m suici, ” he said. About 10 to 15 percent are agile gay kids, and they’re sceptible to msag of gay-youth suici. “There are straight youth who are genr-atypil and they suffer as much as gay kids.

But whether there’s a direct lk between bullyg and suici among gay teens has not been shown. Gay, straight, bisexual: how much do sexual orientatn matter to a teenager’s mental health or sense of inty?

WATCH A TEENAGE BOY FD A STACK OF GAY PORN IN ADAM BARAN’S ADORABLE SHORT FILM ‘JACKPOT’

In this down-to-earth book, filled wh the voic of young people speakg for themselv, Rch Sav-Williams argu that the standard image of gay youth prented by mental health rearchers—as prsed, isolated, dg-pennt, even suicidal—may have been exaggerated even twenty years ago, and is far om accurate today. The New Gay Teenager giv a rehg and equently ntroversial troductn to nfint, petent, upbeat teenagers wh same-sex sir, who worry more about the chemistry tt or their curfew than they do about their sexualy. What do “gay” mean, when some adolcents who have had sexual enunters wh those of their own sex don’t nsir themselv gay, when some who nsir themselv gay have had sex wh the oppose sex, and when many have never had sex at all?

When lookg back, most homosexual teens realize that they have felt different as early as five years of age. Puberty is generally when kids beg to thk that they might be gay bee of their attractn to members of the same sex.

"Young gay people often go through a stage where they label themselv bisexual as a way to give themselv more optns, " says Dr. It is not mon for homosexual adolcents to e out durg this perd of inty nfn.

COMG OUT: A PARENTS GUI TO SUPPORTG YOUR GAY TEEN

A lonely way of life n e about pecially if their muny do not have an active gay youth subculture.

Studi show that most homosexuals did not fully accept their sexualy until their late teens or at some pot their twenti.

This uld be due to the social prejudice and discrimatn (stigma) agast homosexualy. In one study nducted onle, of almost two thoand gays and bisexuals age twenty-five and unr, the average age to reveal homosexualy was sixteen. Homosexual teens tend to not fully beg datg until out of high school, livg alone or livg a cy wh a large gay populatn.