For most kids, the social prsur of middle school are tough enough. But an creasg number of young teenagers, some as young 10 or 11, are g out as gay or lbian middle school. Beno Denizet-Lewis, who wrote about the trend the New York Tim Magaze, discs what social factors uld be leadg young people to e out earlier.
Contents:
- IS YOUR CHILD GAY?
- GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
- WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHILD SAYS: "I'M GAY"
- GAY TT FOR MAL AG 12-16
- GAY TT FOR BOYS AG 12 TO 16
- COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
IS YOUR CHILD GAY?
“You serly have a problem wh people beg gay? “So you’re homophobic?
“So you jt blatantly adm to beg homophobic? “She’s gay and you blatantly said you don’t support gay people, ” he ntu, drivg his pot home. He go on another vio to try to expla that not all LGBTQ people are gay his own 12-year-old way, but didn’t seem to nvce the other players.
##htryghisbt #homophobia ##brothers♬ origal sound – LtleCanary. @bummblebeo__that’s my boy ##brothers #homophobia ##lgbt ##A+♬ origal sound – LtleCanary.
GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
Pastor tells flock homosexualy is a “monic spir” stealg Christian children. Catholic school revers cisn to fire a gay ach after stunts ept anger.
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.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHILD SAYS: "I'M GAY"
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.
GAY TT FOR MAL AG 12-16
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. Given that a small proportn of the populatn is homosexual, prospective studi require a large number of children.
GAY TT FOR BOYS AG 12 TO 16
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.
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.
COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
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.