Josh Delsman, an 18 year old from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., reluctantly revealed he was a homosexual at age 14 after a friend told middle school officials, who later informed his parents.
"I didn't want to come out," Delsman said. "But I realized I was gay a lot younger than that. I knew when I was 8 or 9, but I just didn't know what to call it."
Delsman, along with two straight classmates, went on to found a Gay Straight Alliance at his high school. GSAs are clubs in schools that promote tolerance and acceptance of all students.
"We were tired of hearing 'that's so gay' and other LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) slurs," Delsman said.
Ritch Savin-Williams, who chairs Cornell University's human development department and wrote the book "The New Gay Teenager," said kids are "coming out" sooner these days.
According to Savin-Williams' book, as reported in the Albuquerque Journal, the average age people used to come out was in their mid-20s, but that has dropped to the mid-teens over the last two decades.
And anecdotally, the median age for high school students to come out is between 15 and 17, according to Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Media's role
Jennings, a 44-year-old former high school teacher who took the organization from a local school-based group to a national one during the 1994-95 school-year, said he believes coming out earlier is directly related to the greater accessibility of information from the Internet, TV and people's peers.
"In my generation, it was very rare to come out in high school. I didn't really know or understand the language for it. They [teens today] have a language to explain what they're feeling that wasn't available to teens in the past," Jennings said.
Part of the reason that young people are coming out sooner may be that as a whole, Generation Nexters -- those aged 16-25 -- are more accepting of homosexuality in general.
Nearly six in 10 people in that age bracket say "homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society," according to a survey released by the Pew Research Center in January. In comparison, the same survey found that only 50 percent of those aged 25 and older felt the same way.
Greater exposure to media images of gay people also has increased homosexuality's awareness and acceptance.
Like Jennings, Jennifer Santiago, a 20 year old who identifies herself as straight, thinks her generation has more exposure to images of LGBT people in the media than ever before, and that for her generation meeting a gay person is not uncommon.
But Santiago thinks many of the images in the media are not positive. One example is MTV's reality program "The Real World."
"On 'The Real World' they always make the one gay person and make it insane. They find the craziest person who is gay and put that person on the show. It's stereotypical. My friends aren't like that," she said.
Some say, however, that the increase in LGBT images across media are encouraging teens to take up a lifestyle they might not have chosen otherwise. Additionally, some socially conservative groups say the teenage years are too chaotic to make decisions about "sexual identity."
"All kids around puberty are confused about who they are," Barbara Swallow of Free Indeed Ministries, a Christian organization that counsels people away from homosexuality, told the Albuquerque Journal.
"Then they're told it's acceptable to be whatever you want to be -- homosexual, bisexual, transgender," she added. "That's not the way God created it."
In an interview with USA Today, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council said that "Homosexuality is harmful to society, and young people have no business committing to a sexual identity until they're adults."
On the other hand, experts such as Dr. Jack Drescher of the American Psychiatric Association, who has studied programs that attempt to alter sexuality, say that pretending to be heterosexual when you're not is bad for teens.
"They are not learning social skills, but developing hiding skills," he told the Albuquerque Journal. "In the process, they lose the ability to know who they are."
Emergence of clubs that promote tolerance
Currently more than 3,000 GSAs across the country are registered with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a group that works to create safe school environments for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or identification.
Many of the clubs have been founded by students who identify themselves as straight, or "straight allies"; they see the direct impact that bullying and discrimination has on their peers.
"Kids with privilege are saying 'this isn't OK by me anymore.' They witness this everyday. They want to make a difference and this is something that they can do. Washington seems very far away. But they can make a difference in their schools," Jennings said.
Delsman, who says coming out is a life-long process, said he's directly seen the positive effect these clubs can have on school environments and students. There's less bullying and fewer discriminatory comments.
"My friend [who] just came out two weeks ago, he moved down from Albany. He had never met another gay person before," Delsman said. "He came down here and the environment was so much better. It was so amazing because I know that 10 years ago he wouldn't have been able to do that at all."
Erik Stegman, a 24-year-old UCLA law student and current co-chairman of GLSEN's National Leadership Council, said the student-run movement helps build confident leaders.
"I became more confident than ever before. This is who I am. On a personal level, I absolutely think it was a positive experience. I gained a lot. We all have to mature real fast coming out," he said.
He said he would like to "turn the whole country's attitude toward what it means to be GLBT, especially as you're young, change the perception that it's a disadvantage, that it's something to feel sad about, guilty about."
-- By Annie Schleicher
"I didn't want to come out," Delsman said. "But I realized I was gay a lot younger than that. I knew when I was 8 or 9, but I just didn't know what to call it."
Delsman, along with two straight classmates, went on to found a Gay Straight Alliance at his high school. GSAs are clubs in schools that promote tolerance and acceptance of all students.
"We were tired of hearing 'that's so gay' and other LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) slurs," Delsman said.
Ritch Savin-Williams, who chairs Cornell University's human development department and wrote the book "The New Gay Teenager," said kids are "coming out" sooner these days.
According to Savin-Williams' book, as reported in the Albuquerque Journal, the average age people used to come out was in their mid-20s, but that has dropped to the mid-teens over the last two decades.
And anecdotally, the median age for high school students to come out is between 15 and 17, according to Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Media's role
Jennings, a 44-year-old former high school teacher who took the organization from a local school-based group to a national one during the 1994-95 school-year, said he believes coming out earlier is directly related to the greater accessibility of information from the Internet, TV and people's peers.
"In my generation, it was very rare to come out in high school. I didn't really know or understand the language for it. They [teens today] have a language to explain what they're feeling that wasn't available to teens in the past," Jennings said.
Part of the reason that young people are coming out sooner may be that as a whole, Generation Nexters -- those aged 16-25 -- are more accepting of homosexuality in general.
Nearly six in 10 people in that age bracket say "homosexuality is a way of life that should be accepted by society," according to a survey released by the Pew Research Center in January. In comparison, the same survey found that only 50 percent of those aged 25 and older felt the same way.
Greater exposure to media images of gay people also has increased homosexuality's awareness and acceptance.
Like Jennings, Jennifer Santiago, a 20 year old who identifies herself as straight, thinks her generation has more exposure to images of LGBT people in the media than ever before, and that for her generation meeting a gay person is not uncommon.
But Santiago thinks many of the images in the media are not positive. One example is MTV's reality program "The Real World."
"On 'The Real World' they always make the one gay person and make it insane. They find the craziest person who is gay and put that person on the show. It's stereotypical. My friends aren't like that," she said.
Some say, however, that the increase in LGBT images across media are encouraging teens to take up a lifestyle they might not have chosen otherwise. Additionally, some socially conservative groups say the teenage years are too chaotic to make decisions about "sexual identity."
"All kids around puberty are confused about who they are," Barbara Swallow of Free Indeed Ministries, a Christian organization that counsels people away from homosexuality, told the Albuquerque Journal.
"Then they're told it's acceptable to be whatever you want to be -- homosexual, bisexual, transgender," she added. "That's not the way God created it."
In an interview with USA Today, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council said that "Homosexuality is harmful to society, and young people have no business committing to a sexual identity until they're adults."
On the other hand, experts such as Dr. Jack Drescher of the American Psychiatric Association, who has studied programs that attempt to alter sexuality, say that pretending to be heterosexual when you're not is bad for teens.
"They are not learning social skills, but developing hiding skills," he told the Albuquerque Journal. "In the process, they lose the ability to know who they are."
Emergence of clubs that promote tolerance
Currently more than 3,000 GSAs across the country are registered with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a group that works to create safe school environments for all students, regardless of sexual orientation or identification.
Many of the clubs have been founded by students who identify themselves as straight, or "straight allies"; they see the direct impact that bullying and discrimination has on their peers.
"Kids with privilege are saying 'this isn't OK by me anymore.' They witness this everyday. They want to make a difference and this is something that they can do. Washington seems very far away. But they can make a difference in their schools," Jennings said.
Delsman, who says coming out is a life-long process, said he's directly seen the positive effect these clubs can have on school environments and students. There's less bullying and fewer discriminatory comments.
"My friend [who] just came out two weeks ago, he moved down from Albany. He had never met another gay person before," Delsman said. "He came down here and the environment was so much better. It was so amazing because I know that 10 years ago he wouldn't have been able to do that at all."
Erik Stegman, a 24-year-old UCLA law student and current co-chairman of GLSEN's National Leadership Council, said the student-run movement helps build confident leaders.
"I became more confident than ever before. This is who I am. On a personal level, I absolutely think it was a positive experience. I gained a lot. We all have to mature real fast coming out," he said.
He said he would like to "turn the whole country's attitude toward what it means to be GLBT, especially as you're young, change the perception that it's a disadvantage, that it's something to feel sad about, guilty about."
-- By Annie Schleicher
No comments:
Post a Comment