What to Do When Your Child Says: "I'm Gay" | Psychology Today

Contents:

• WHEN YOUR CHILD IS GAY
• EXPLAG IT TO YOUR KIDS: WHAT DO 'BEG GAY' MEAN?
• WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHILD SAYS: "I'M GAY"

WHEN YOUR CHILD IS GAY

Many of the straight parents I terviewed for When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need To Know exprsed havg felt disappotment learng that their child was LGBT.

Would he be fired at his job if his supervisors found out that he were gay? Would he have to live a gay-iendly neighborhood? Natalie, 63, a mother om Long Island, found out that two of her three children were gay.

" Natalie felt that was a loss to the fay geic pool and kept wonrg if beg gay was a choice. Richard Ogawa of Seattle figured out he was gay llege.

EXPLAG IT TO YOUR KIDS: WHAT DO 'BEG GAY' MEAN?

Richard told me, "Perhaps if every parent toyed wh the possibily that any of their children uld be gay, would change the way they raise their children. Gay children are no different—so ltle of their sexual orientatn has to do wh who they are as a whole.

"It is rare to work wh parents of a gay child who have not stggled wh the feelg of loss at some pot the procs of acceptg their child as gay, " my -thor, Jonathan Tobk, M.

Parents feel sad that their gay child has lost the possibily of havg a life whout signifint difficulty. " Yet Tobk has found that "gay people tell you they are happy wh who they are and feel that they have emerged on the other si of g out as strong, sensive, and rilient dividuals. Havg a gay child is not a loss of a child altogether.

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

"Mommy, what do ‘beg gay' mean? Therefore, I mt say that I would probably fer - or at least do everythg I uld to fer - a discsn of homosexualy and gay behavr wh a child 10 years old and unr.