MY 14 YEAR OLD GAY SON IS SEEING A 17 YEAR OLD

Contents:

• GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"
• 12-YEAR-OLD'S IENDS DIDN'T CELEBRATE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY. SO A PARK FULL OF STRANGERS DID
• MY 14 YEAR OLD GAY SON IS SEEING A 17 YEAR OLD
• FIVE YEARS OLD AND GAY RURAL, WTERN KANSAS
• WHEN GOG TO THE STORE WH YOUR 10-YEAR-OLD GAY SON IS A POLIL ACT
• ‘MY FIRST TIME TO GO ALL THE WAY’ - 3 XXX STORI OF GAY TEENS POPPG THEIR CHERRY
• IS YOUR CHILD GAY?

GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"

Gay kids are g out earlier — sometim middle school — and many are fdg acceptance. Enuraggly, beg young and openly gay seems to be gettg easier. Denizet-Lewis wr that when he started workg for the gay men's magaze XY 1998, "we received dozens of letters each week om teenagers the pths of spair.

" Three years later, he says, "a new kd of gay adolcent was appearg on the page - proud, rilient, sometim even happy. " He explas, That's not to say that gay teenagers didn't still suffer harassment at school or rejectn at home, but many seemed ls burned wh shame and self-loathg than their olr gay peers. Not only were there creasgly accurate and posive portrayals of gays and lbians popular culture, but most teenagers were by then regular Inter ers.

12-YEAR-OLD'S IENDS DIDN'T CELEBRATE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY. SO A PARK FULL OF STRANGERS DID

Gog onle broke through the isolatn that had been a hallmark of beg young and gay, and allowed gay teenagers to fd rmatn to refute what their fai or church sometim still told them - namely, that they would never fd happs and to the Inter and to creasg cultural acceptance of homosexualy (an crease marred, we should note, by measur like Proposn 8), kids who might once have waed until high school or even llege to e out are now dog so earlier. At least 120 middle schools the untry have gay-straight alliance groups, and others let stunts observe the natnal Day of Silence prott agast anti-gay harassment.

MY 14 YEAR OLD GAY SON IS SEEING A 17 YEAR OLD

" They were not, however, silent: "Good luck gettg middle-schoolers not to talk, " the school unselor youth of the Webster kids and other gay middle-schoolers is a sign of how far gay rights have e — but 's also the kids' biggt obstacle to acceptance. A tellg anecdote om Nadia, the mom of a gay 15-year-old named At.

" But she had actually asked At if he was gay when she found out he had lled a gay chat le. The irony of a parent spectg her kid is gay and then refg to believe he uld know his own orientatn highlights how much more difficulty some parents have wh burgeong gay sexualy than they would wh a straight kid's of this may have to do wh the misnceptn that you have to have gay terurse to be gay, or that homosexualy is somehow a more "sexual" orientatn than heterosexualy.

'Eileen Ross, director of a Mounta View, CA program for gay youth, says that when a 12-year-old boy says he lik girls, "No one says to them: 'Are you sure?

FIVE YEARS OLD AND GAY RURAL, WTERN KANSAS

A lawyer Florida argued that gay-straight allianc promote the "premature sexualizatn of the stunts, " and when At started a gay-straight alliance, his Michigan school ma him ll somethg "ls ntroversial" (he chose "Peace Alliance").

WHEN GOG TO THE STORE WH YOUR 10-YEAR-OLD GAY SON IS A POLIL ACT

Denizet-Lewis reports the hopeful words of velopmental psychologist Rch Sav-Williams: "This is the first generatn of gay kids who have the great joy of beg able to argue wh their parents about datg, jt like their straight peers do.

And maybe today's gay kids are slowly startg to receive via New York Tim Out In Middle School [NYT Magaze]. - The world's first fe art photography magaze dited to queer and gay 2 - the Pri Issue featur ten photographers om ne untri: AY (UK), David Charl Colls (Atralia), Matthew Fley (USA), Ashish Gupta (India), Manuel Monyo (Mexi), Juan Anton Papagni Me (Argenta), Sebastian Perotti (Argenta), Mric A. Art platform to promote queer and gay photography.

It now reprents more than 67 photographers om 27 untri - cludg Cha, India, Iran, Poland, Rsia and Turkey where gay rights are reprsed and queer liv unr nstant have been onle and physil exhibns, and two sold out BOYS! Said:"Dpe the panmic we managed to lnch a new pennt magaze dited to queer and gay photography.

‘MY FIRST TIME TO GO ALL THE WAY’ - 3 XXX STORI OF GAY TEENS POPPG THEIR CHERRY

It jt go to show that there is a market for a well-produced prt magaze showsg fe art photography by queer and gay photographers that is not jt a dick magaze! 'It's outrageoly amazg that this ltle kid, even wh all this adversy, n still be out here'Surprise birthday party shows gay youth he's not Neville lost iends after he me out, so his mom asked others to show support for her 12-year-old son. A crowd full of strangers filled a northwt Calgary park to celebrate a boy's rabow-themed birthday durg Pri O'Donnell says when her son Brody Neville me out as gay this sprg, the 12-year-old lost many of his ma the prospect of celebratg his birthday this year a sad one.

"I was askg him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he was tears and said sce he me out as gay he lost all his iends, so he didn't even have people who uld e, " O'Donnell said. At my school, the very place that I first observed queer cursy, I was sred to e out, fearg my own physil and emotnal wasn’t jt the school locker room where I heard homophobic remarks. Gay people are an abomatn and are gog to Hell if they don’t get right wh God.

” Years later he warned: “If you turn out gay, I’ll fuck you up. Image me, a young black gay Christian male, tryg to rencile my sexualy wh school, home, and church life. What happens to a black gay Christian who liv a hoehold that hat him; who really believed that he was gog to Hell.

IS YOUR CHILD GAY?

Perhaps was the support of iends, nts, and those around me that ma me not want to feel ashamed about myself anymore, even if that meant God damng me to the begng of senr year, I went om “I’m gay” to whoever asked, to “Can you stop sayg faggot please? A month later, I cid to no longer participate the mentorship program, and every time I was asked why, I ma exc about beg too time, I retreated to my fantasy world, where I was not sixteen and gay a homophobic environment, but a world where I was olr, the future, when I would arrive to a betiful home om a long day at work, and be weled by a hband who lov me and bears my burns on his shoulrs.

I was thrilled to be leavg and movg on, but I uld see that many of my fellow graduat were facg siar hurdl, on that I had enuntered, and had only masked their tth wh homophobia. ESSAY | LIFE | RURAL LIVING | LGBT+ | AUTOBIOGRAPHYFive Years Old and Gay Rural, Wtern KansasThe remarkable story of Kev and the doghoe(Not a Medium member? I knew I was gay at age five.