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:
- UNSEEN, PART 3: POPULAR GAY DATG APP GRDR POS EXPLOATN RISK TO MORS
- GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"
- WHEN DO GAY KIDS START “ACTG GAY”?
- APPLE APPROV 'ONLY GAY SOCIAL APP FOR AG 12 AND UP'
- MY 14 YEAR OLD GAY SON IS SEEING A 17 YEAR OLD
- IS YOUR CHILD GAY?
- THE DIGAL SEX LIV OF YOUNG GAY TEENAGERS
- 12-YEAR-OLD'S IENDS DIDN'T CELEBRATE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY. SO A PARK FULL OF STRANGERS DID
- GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
UNSEEN, PART 3: POPULAR GAY DATG APP GRDR POS EXPLOATN RISK TO MORS
Rearchers say more than half of gay and bisexual teens e the se to fd sexual partners. * 14 year old gay boys *
German Chavez was 14 years old when he first started g a gay datg app lled Grdr to fd adult men to pay him for need to help his troubled sgle mother pay the bills, he said, and had no trouble fdg men to purchase him on the popular lotn-based mobile 25 and years away om the sex tra, Chavez is warng other mors to stay away om Grdr, one of the most popular apps the untry for gay and bisexual men. The pany touts s mobile platform as “The World’s Largt Social Networkg App for Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer People” and says s ers have to be 18 years old and the app is teemg wh unrage gay, bisexual and qutng boys, acrdg to rearchers, child exploatn specialists and ers like Chavez who say they n easily lie about their age to ga accs to the LGBTQ teens are seekg nnectn a world that provis few safe spac, rearchers say.
More than half of sexually active gay and bisexual boys between the ag of 14 and 17 fd sexual partners on Grdr and other siar apps, acrdg to a 2018 study by Northwtern Universy rearchers.
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. But some parents and teachers wonr if the kids are too young to really know their sexual orientatn. * 14 year old gay boys *
Turban recently -published an article the Journal of the Amerin Amy of Child and Adolcent Psychiatry timatg that about one quarter of all gay and bisexual adolcent mal are g Grdr and siar apps — likely hundreds of thoands of youth natnwi. He’s seen gay teens end up at an emergency room Boston — where he worked until last year — crisis after beg sexually exploed by men they met on Grdr yet too ashamed to seek help om other adults.
WHEN DO GAY KIDS START “ACTG GAY”?
A Mnota school district is facg a Department of Jtice vtigatn and a private lawsu over s alleged failure to bat antigay bullyg.... * 14 year old gay boys *
He says he has received some phback om members of the gay muny about his foc on Grdr, when there are so many s targetg children. There’s a history of anti-gay propaganda patg gay men as pedophil, he said, when there is no rearch to show they are more likely to be predators than others.
But Turban says homophobia is also to blame for why LGBTQ youth have so few outlets to fd timacy and also why their victimizatn is so seldom talked about. He says clicians and fay members should do more to talk to gay youth about the health and safety risks of datg apps. Bradley Tyrrell, 35, of Newton says the app is a “double-edged sword” — a place to meet gay men but also wh many unknowns.
APPLE APPROV 'ONLY GAY SOCIAL APP FOR AG 12 AND UP'
The founrs of believe 's time for a gay social app that don't have sex at s re. This is an app that "you n brg home to Mom." " data-hid="scriptn * 14 year old gay boys *
Kathryn Mapagal, a rearch profsor at Northwtern Universy, says she first asked teens about hook-up apps 2016 when she was preparg a sex tn program for gay and bisexual boys. Her team nducted more surveys to talk about why they get on the apps — often gay and qutng teens lookg for muny a world that don’t wele them.
Chavez says he first turned to Grdr middle school hopg to learn om others about what means to be gay, qutns he uldn’t answer at home.
MY 14 YEAR OLD GAY SON IS SEEING A 17 YEAR OLD
Hi my only jt 14 year old son has recently told me he is gay, we have long expected this may be the se. My problem * 14 year old gay boys *
“Jt bee I was troduced to this one guy who probably isn’t gay and jt is a pedophile, like, don’t mean that that’s how the muny is, ” he said. “That’s the sry part about Grdr, that n be, like, lerally a guy who don’t intify as gay and jt lik kids.
IS YOUR CHILD GAY?
"That’s the sry part about Grdr, that n be, like, lerally a guy who don’t intify as gay and jt lik kids. “When you’re alg wh the vulnerabili of somebody who’s gay and who's velopg our society, ’s tenfold more difficult and more imprsnable, ’’ she said.
Kimberly Nelson, a profsor of Communy Health Scienc at the Boston Universy School of Public Health, says s natural for gay teens to head to Grdr to explore their sexualy. ”Chris Bat, a Worcter-based traffickg survivor and advote, wish he had been given more warngs about sex traffickg school when he was gay youth livg ral Connecticut.
THE DIGAL SEX LIV OF YOUNG GAY TEENAGERS
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.
12-YEAR-OLD'S IENDS DIDN'T CELEBRATE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY. SO A PARK FULL OF STRANGERS DID
" 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.
GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
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.