What I've Learned About the Stresses of Gay Youth

              While researching my topic, the pressures gay teens face, I’ve heard a few of these kid’s stories and they’re pretty incredible to me.  One of the common things in all their stories was how difficult it was gaining the acceptance from their family more than their peers.  Though they still mentioned being bullied by other kids and John (who I interviewed) was even beat up, but most of them say it was more difficult confronting and dealing with their family.  A couple of the kids in the group meeting I went to haven’t told their parents that they are gay; one kid said that he was more scared to tell his family because your family is always supposed to accept and love you no matter what, so if they didn’t it would hurt much more, you can always find new friends but you can’t get a new family.  John’s mother didn’t talk to him for almost two years until they finally were able to work things out and he said that was what was most difficult.

                The thing that makes their stories incredible to me is that despite all these fears of revealing their sexuality to their family, peers, and everyone else, it’s still not something they can or want to change.  This may not be true for all gay youth, but the kids I talked to are proud to be who they are, they’re just afraid of being judged for it.  They voiced that for most it is not a choice, it’s how they were born.  Being gay doesn’t define them as a person, it is part of them are as much as what their gender, age, or race is; it’s part of who they are, but not all they are.