Disclosure Case Studies

The gay personality may be determined during a child’s early years of development or throughout the individual’s life. A lesbian or gay individual like heterosexual individuals are influenced by family, peers, and society. Family structure, social factors, and cognition and conditioning help the development of sexual identity (Kwiatkowski, 2010). The child while living with the parents, adopt many of the customs and values the parents emphasize. The parents may stress the importance of gender roles in the household which the child may learn to

Growing up in a spiritual black home, the topics of sexuality and gender are barely discussed, and if the book that my mom bought me when she couldn’t find the words to teach me about sex herself say anything, then it’s easy to see how I was sheltered from most things as a child. Despite having sex ed in middle school, I still didn’t know much about anything outside of those very awkward and giggle filled health classes. It wasn’t until my best friend pulled me aside after class into the bathroom and whispered in my ear that she was gay, that it’d even cross my mind that maybe I wasn’t as straight as I thought. Even then her coming out to me was an awkward. Picture this, two young girls awkwardly staring at each other in a dirty middle school

Students and parents should be informed of the confidentiality and legal situations that would involve informing third party sources while services are in place as well as reminding the parents/student as needed of these guidelines. A student, parent, or school employee's sexual orientation, gender identity, or transgender status will not be shared unless permission has been given by said individual. Health laws should be reviewed before disclosing health issues with any individual in regards to student, parent, or school employee and only shared if there is believed to be a risk to the public.

A child, whether the gender is a boy or girl learns how to behave from birth that role. We realize what is anticipated from our sexual orientation from what our parents teach us. In additionally what we get at school, in the media, and different other social institutions. A father might teach

In studies of physical abuse in children, gay and lesbian individuals were more likely to report former abuse than heterosexuals. In one study, seventeen percent of gay and lesbian participants reported abuse, while only twelve percent of straight participants were determined to be abused as children. (Saewyc, Bearinger, Blum, and Resnick, 1999) Even in families, homosexuals were found to be abused worse than their straight siblings as children. (Tjaden, Thoennes, and Allison, 1999)

In my sexual health class, we talked about sexual orientation. We had two guest speakers, one was a lesbian that was engaged and a transgender from a man to female. The lesbian speaker talked to us about how her journey went when she came out to her family and friends that she was a lesbian. She said it was not easy, but over the years her family started to support her decision of being with the same sex. For the transgender male to female had a different story. He was the only child and only had one girl in his life which was somewhat not by choice. He was young and a little girl asked him if he was gay and at that time he was in denial so he said no and when she asked will you go out with he was like he did not care, but after one week he got his best friend to break them up. I found that funny because he got his best friend to break them up because he did like that fact that she was a girl. But to make a long story short, he found out that in his middle school years that he loves the same sex and that he saw himself as a woman and not a male. A year ago, he came out to his family and friends that he was gay and that he was going through the change of became a transgender. The person that was most hurt was his father because he was the only child and he was a boy. As he grew up, his father was a bishop and soon became a pastor and it was hard for him to support his new daughter when the Bible says otherwise. It was just interesting that his father has to decide what to do.

Internalized homophobia is important to note as these feelings about gender and sexuality can reactivate when LGBT individuals begin navigating creating their own families and procreating. glazer’s research notes lesbian mothers feeling anxious about their perceived inability to provide male role models for their sons. Additionally, parenting for LGBT individuals can activate feelings of gender anxiety and internalized homophobia because of the societal implications associated with functions of mother and father roles and activities (Glazer, 2013).

Nicholas Solebello and Sinikka Elliott examine the way fathers describe and discuss the conversations they have had with their teens about sexuality and sexual orientation in the article “‘We Want Them to Be as Heterosexual as Possible’ Fathers talk about Their Teen Children’s Sexuality”. The overwhelming theme of these conversations was that fathers encouraged and expected their children, especially their sons, to be heterosexual. Fathers seemed much more invested and interested in the sexuality of their sons than their daughters. The fathers seemed to view sons as sexual beings, but not daughters. The prevalent pattern was that they explicitly wanted their sons to be heterosexual and interested but careful about sex. They expected and viewed

Children from gay families may benefit from the examples the parents provide. In addition to accepting others, they also learn to accept themselves. Homosexual parents may teach their children that being different is not bad; that it is important to develop one’s on identity and not conform to what society tells us we should be. Children learn that they do not have to hide anything from their parents because they can identify and are, therefore, more understanding.

Children are much more affected by the relationship they have with their parents than by the parent’s sexual orientation. Gay and lesbian parents are just as likely to provide a supportive and healthy environment in order for their children to flourish as heterosexual parents. In fact, same sex parents offer many benefits to their children that the traditional parents do not. Families come in many forms, gay parents only want what is best for their child, just as any family would. It is important to look over the sexual orientation of the individuals raising a child and look at the family as a fundamental

There is much debate that homosexuality is a developmental problem caused by a weak bond between a father and son during one’s childhood. A failed relationship with one’s father can lead the boy to not fully internalize male gender identity and develop homosexually (Baird & Baird, 1995). Consider the gender development of identity. Infants indentify with their mother who is the first and primary source of nurturance and care. As girls age, they continue to identify mostly with their mother and boys shift towards their father. Through a father-son relationship, masculine identification is attained which is necessary if the boy is to develop a normally masculine personality (i.e. heterosexuality). This development task helps explain why boys have more difficulty than girls in developing gender identity and may also explain the higher ratio of male to female homosexuality (Baird & Baird, 1995). It is important that

I tend to live within my bubble of life and not judge others because I don’t know where they come from and never want to damage someone else’s life by my words. I have been I have respect for all life forms and will show that by listening to what they have to say, hopefully a listening ear can help in this huge step in coming out to someone. I have two boys who I have mentioned before in other assignments. This is a situation that I have ponder over many times before. I have thought about my reactions and thoughts if any one of my present or future children decided that they wanted to come out to me. My first thought is that I hope that they love and respect me enough to be the person they feel the most comfortable with to share in this scary step as they have done before. I know that I would not be swayed in my love or respect for them because of their sexuality. I would express to them my pride in their personal strength in doing this and hopefully the world will be in a better position to accept the LGBT community, and possibly my children, as I

I shall keep in strictest confidence and shall not disclose to any participant or other third party at any time (i.e., prior to, during, or after the taping or broadcast of any episode of the project) any information or materials of any kind relating to the project, including without limitation, any information or materials concerning or relating to Starhaus Entertainment, Its subsidiaries, affiliated entities, officers, directors, employees or contractors, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliated entities, officers, the business of, any project produced by (“PRODUCER”) or (“NETWORK”) and/or broadcast by Starhaus Entertainment, including, without limitation, any information concerning or relating to the project, the project participants, the events contained in the Project or the outcome of any episode of the project, that I read, hear or otherwise acquire or learn in connection with or as a result of my performing services with respect to the project.

Gabriel Rotello in his article “Calling All Parents,” underscores this need for parental love by stating that almost all lesbian and gay teens go through a terrible, lonely stage when they feel they have no one to turn to, not even their own family members - sometimes especially not their own family members. It’s a phase that can leave lasting psychological damage even to the vast majority who survive it (112). Gay children are at extremely high risk for anxiety, confusion, despair, and, yes, some even contemplate suicide. In fact, according to a recent study published in the May 1999 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, gay and lesbian youth “were 3.4 times as likely to have attempted suicide than straight youth.” (487)

Does growing up with gay parents affect childhood development? There are very few studies that examine the effects of children because social change is mainly examined through parent relationships. However, it is important to consider whether the sexual orientation of parents impacts the daily lives of the children. Sexual orientation is defined as “the pattern of romantic and sexual attraction to others in relation to one’s own gender identity.” Some may believe that this is biological, while others believe it is strictly social or has some social importance. Homosexuality has had a very strong presence in society because it has created a negative stigma ever since it became constructed to be a part of someone’s identity. When gay or lesbian couples decide to have children through whichever measures they pursue, they may not be thinking of the social implications the children may face as they grow older. Although this generation is the most accepting of the LGBTQ community, it still does not exclude the people that look down on them or their children.