What's Life Like For Gay Kids In Public Schools? : NPR

HOW CHRISTIAN PARENTS SHOULD RPOND TO THEIR CHILD'S GAY INTY CRISIS

When a child first out as eher beg gay or havg same-sex attractn their parents' ial rpons are ually the wrong on, says Chris Doyle, a psychotherapist who specializ SSA. * being gay as a teenager *

They change their pronouns, go to school danc wh people of the same genr, and are more likely than any prev generatn to openly intify as gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr or otherwise queer.

Many young transgenr and gay people have been affected by a wave of recent Republin-led legislatn qutng their inty or puttg rtrictns on their liv. It’s a different world om when his olr sister, Brianna Henrson, attend jt seven years ago, when there were very few openly gay stunts. Often, young people don’t intify only one tegory, and thk of them as overlappg: “The majory of my iends and peers are bisexual or pansexual, more than jt straight-up gay or lbian or trans, ” said Jareth Leiker, a high school stunt Portland, Ore.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHILD SAYS: "I'M GAY"

* being gay as a teenager *

Rearchers say that as beg gay or transgenr beme more accepted, more people me out of the closet than prev generatns, and earlier. In 2014, the basketball player Jason Colls beme the first openly gay athlete one of the four major North Amerin pro sports leagu, and a year later, Calyn Jenner, the Olympian and Kardashian, me out as transgenr. And while both groups reported hearg the words “gay” and “queer” ed negatively at siar rat — a data pot reflected terviews wh teenagers, who say they still hear “that’s so gay” school hallways — the younger graduat were signifintly more likely to hear those words ed a posive light, too.

Four charts showg that more young people today intify as gay, lbian or bisexual; more approve of gay marriage; fewer reported harassment high school; more say their school had a gay-straight alliance. Support for transgenr rights lags that for gay rights, and ’s easier to be a young gay person than a young trans person, teenagers said. About 70 percent of high school stunts who intify as gay, lbian or bisexual reported persistent sadns, acrdg to recent data om the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn, twice the rate of their heterosexual peers.

COMG OUT: A PARENTS GUI TO SUPPORTG YOUR GAY TEEN

Homophobic remarks among stunts are more mon Southern and ral schools, and ls so at private schools and the Wt and Northeast, acrdg to GLSEN. Young people are also affected by the culture at large, rearchers say, as anti-trans legislatn and what crics ll “Don’t Say Gay” bills reverberate across the untry.

The prence of a gay-straight alliance improv the school climate as a whole, studi show, even for people who don’t participate. It’s not pletely known what someone to be lbian, gay, straight, or bisexual, but your sexual orientatn probably started at a very young age.

The phrase “ the closet” may be ed to refer to someone who is gay, lbian, or bisexual, but hasn’t told iends and fay members yet. People who are homosexual are romantilly and physilly attracted to people of the same sex: Femal who are attracted to other femal are lbian; mal who are attracted to other mal are often known as gay. Beg terted someone of the same sex do not necsarily mean that a person is gay — jt as beg terted someone of the oppose sex don't mean a person is straight.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT GAY TEENAGERS

People who are transgenr are often grouped wh lbian and gay as a way to clu people who don't feel they f to the tegory of beg "straight.

Bee of this, some gay and lbian teens may feel different om their iends when the heterosexual people around them start talkg about romantic feelgs, datg, and sex. A 2012 survey by the Human Rights Campaign found that 92% of LGBT teens had heard negative thgs about beg lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr.