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:
- I’M A BOY OF 13 AND I THK I’M GAY BUT I HAVEN’T TOLD ANYONE. WHAT BOOKS N I READ?
- GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
- 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
- EARLY SIGNS TO TELL YOUR CHILD IS GAY
- 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?
* gay 13 years old boy *
“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?
” For direct, practil advice, I wrote This Book Is 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.
GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
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. * gay 13 years old boy *
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.
GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"
A heartwarmg note om a mother to her gay son is gog viral after beg upload to the ter. * gay 13 years old boy *
A new vio illtrat jt how far the gay muny has e the past few Pri, partnership wh YouTubers Trent and Le, has rerd a nversatn between gay people of different generatns. The vio marks the 50th year sce the Uned Kgdom's crimalizatn of , the 13-year-old Louis talks wh the 78-year-old Percy about their vastly different experienc of g out and beg gay different remarked how is "amazg" that Louis is out and also supported by his fay and iends. Stand up for beg gay and for actually tryg to make people unrstand that the most important thg is that you n love somebody and don't matter who they are, " he said.
Are people who e out as gay their teens sted to face rejectn, bullyg and inty crisis? MARTIN: Now, how did you notice this trend of younger and younger children intifyg themselv as gay? You mentned the piece that you are a gay man.
I read a lot about youth culture and I was talkg to tors and, you know, lears of gay youth groups and they were all sayg the same thg.
12-YEAR-OLD'S IENDS DIDN'T CELEBRATE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY. SO A PARK FULL OF STRANGERS DID
When realy, if you talk to a gay man, you know, many of them lookg back will say, you know, I noticed my same sex attractn, you know, at 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 that ballpark. You know, recent studi are showg that kids are self-intifyg as gay anywhere om 13 to 16. The other realy is that 's still very difficult for a lot of gay kids to be out middle school.
I mean, one of the tertg thgs that we have to look at is this, is that much of the anti-gay bullyg and anti-gay harassment that's gog on middle schools and high school is more about genr non-nformy than really is about beg gay or lbian.
EARLY SIGNS TO TELL YOUR CHILD IS GAY
You say, look, on the one hand, is an eighth-grar who says he's gay jt experimentg?
If sexualy is so fluid, should he really box himself wh a gay inty? But you say that when to kids who say that they are gay, 's almost like we want to talk them out of .
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR CHILD SAYS: "I'M GAY"
Is that beg gay or lbian is still enough of a pariah inty that parents want to take off the table as long as they n, or is jt that parents really feel that all kids are sexualized too early the days, and they don't want their kids at this age thkg about, you know, hookg up? So was really - and a lot of parents, when they heard their kid, their 12-, 13-, 14-year-old say, you know, I'm gay, or I'm bisexual, or I'm lbian, they tomatilly went to oh my god, that means he's havg sex, when realy wasn't about that at all.
DENIZET-LEWIS: I thk that there's no doubt that sort of as you have more posive portrayals and, I would say, accurate portrayals of gay and lbian life the media, and kids n go onle and fd all kds of rourc, that there's no doubt that that's gog to have an effect on kids, and that they're gog to possibly e out earlier bee of that. Now, I don't thk that those posive portrayals of gay life is gog to sort of make a kid who's not attracted to the same sex sudnly say, you know, hey, this seems really ol. You know, I'm gog to try beg gay for a ltle while.
What I thk that the more posive portrayals popular culture has done is 's ma a ltle b safer for kids who do feel that they're gay or lbian to be able to e to their parents or school unselor and talk about the issu, which I thk is a real step forward bee for many years, kids who had same-sex attractn or were nfed, they uldn't talk to anyone about . You know, granted I lived San Francis, but none of my iends were gay, or none of the kids my age were gay.