Is Your Child Gay? - Scientific Amerin

Contents:

• WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHILD SAYS: "I'M GAY"
• I’M A BOY OF 13 AND I THK I’M GAY BUT I HAVEN’T TOLD ANYONE. WHAT BOOKS N I READ?
• IS YOUR CHILD GAY?
• THE HEARTBREAKG TE STORY OF THE GAY TEEN AND HIS DAD BEHD ‘JOE BELL’
• YOUR CHILD JT TOLD YOU HE'S GAY. NOW WHAT?
• MOM, I’M GAY. CAN MY FRIENDS SLEEP OVER?
• APPLE APPROV 'ONLY GAY SOCIAL APP FOR AG 12 AND UP'

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

When parents learn that their child is gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr, they n experience a range of emotns.

As a matter of fact, you might someday look back and fd that you are grateful for the experience of havg a gay or lbian child. Well, my study of 65 fai of gay and lbian youth for the book, Comg Out, Comg Home: Helpg Fai Adjt to a Gay or Lbian Child, I found that some parents get to the pot where they believe that the experience of havg a gay child actually ma them a better person—more open-md and sensive to the needs of others, particularly those other mory groups.

If you jt found out your child is gay, lbian, bisexual, or transgenr, you may be thkg that such ias are prepostero. The tstworthy nfidants let them vent but also rrected some of the misperceptns they absorbed om society, such as that gay people are lonely, unhappy, promiscuo, not fay-oriented, unable to have children, or sted for an unhappy life. Contact Parents, Fay, and Friends of Lbians and Gays (PFLAG).

I’M A BOY OF 13 AND I THK I’M GAY BUT I HAVEN’T TOLD ANYONE. WHAT BOOKS N I READ?

Straight Parents Gay Children: Keepg Fai Together (revised edn). Beyond Acceptance: Parents of Lbians, and Gays Talk About Their Experienc.

IS YOUR CHILD GAY?

Somethg to Tell You: The Road Fai Travel when a Child is Gay. Comg Out, Comg Home: Helpg Fai Adjt to a Gay or Lbian Child. “I’m a 13-year-old boy and I thk I’m gay but I haven’t told anyone.

What books n I read to help me get the urage to tell people – and make sure that I’m that fely gay? Siarly, Becky Albertelli’s Simon Vs the Homosapien’s Agenda and Liz Ksler’s Read Me Like A Book look at the mefield of g ’s about transgenr youths, not gay on, but Lisa Williamson’s The Art of Beg Normal is warm and upliftg and looks at the rewards and challeng of livg a more thentic, hont life.

Two Weeks Wh The Queen by Morris Glezman was wrten the 80s at a time when there was a lot more homophobia about and AIDS was still a new, uncurable disease – this book is surprisgly funny and heartwarmg, given the subject. S., and ns om the fifti to the neti but do start wh two ne year old s, both gay, who form a lifelong iendship. If he is gay, havg a uple of role mols like Achill and Patrocl will make a nice (healthy) change om the vast majory of gay trop out there.

THE HEARTBREAKG TE STORY OF THE GAY TEEN AND HIS DAD BEHD ‘JOE BELL’

As I relayed When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need To Know (Sterlg, 2016), I found out that my son was gay om a note wh our son's name entwed wh another boy's, surround by a heart.

Had I asked him if he were gay when he was 13, he probably would have fensively said "No! San Berland, the mother of a gay son who ach parents of LGBTQ kids, utn, "It's not a good ia to ask.

YOUR CHILD JT TOLD YOU HE'S GAY. NOW WHAT?

Acrdg to my -thor, psychiatrist Jonathan Tobk, "Gay children feel credibly vulnerable when g out to their parents, and tak time to work up the urage to do this.

Watch gay-themed shows together such as "The Fosters" and "Will and Grace. In a way, you have an advantage by not knowg; giv you more time to prepare for the day (if ever) when he do reveal he's gay.

“As a psychotherapist who works wh a lot of children who are gay, I have gotten this qutn multiple tim om parents, ” said Courtney Glashow, licensed clil social worker and psychotherapist at Anchor Therapy New Jersey.

MOM, I’M GAY. CAN MY FRIENDS SLEEP OVER?

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.

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. 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.

APPLE APPROV 'ONLY GAY SOCIAL APP FOR AG 12 AND UP'

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. 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.