Are young people turning gay?

Curtaintwitcher

No, young people are not turning gay....you are either gay or you're not.
What is happening is that young people are being forced to question their sexuality way before it should be an issue for them.
Puberty is the time when a person becomes truly aware sexually. They need to know that there are people they can discuss things with and gain advice if necessary.
Until then, the subject should be left alone.

'forced'?

We laugh and ask toddlers, 'Is that your boy/girl friend?'

We say to children, 'when you get married and have babies...'

The books they read at school. What they see on TV. The onslaught of cis heterosexuality is relentless.

Our whole lives are indoctrination into cis gender and heterosexuality. Thank goodness we live in a time today where other points of view are at times put forward.

I don't think young people can 'turn gay'. However I taught teenagers for many years. Over the years I encountered pupils who were gay, some who came out confidently,others who struggled with their sexuality. I also taught a number of pupils who perceived themselves as 'different' in some way and desperately needed a community so they clung to the gay kids and identified as such for a while. Latterly some identified as trans, again in the need to belong

I asked around the youngsters in the family and nobody has ‘turned’ gay. I have some friends who are gay, but they didn’t turn gay. They just were gay.

I don't think young people are turning gay. I think that they are allowed to be intimate with any human they love whereas our generation was only allowed to choose a person who was opposite sex of our own due to parental, societal or religious rules.

Fair enough volver this time but the young student staying with me has just written a paper on gender difference in conversation
This rather made me chuckle. How many times do men interrupt? Are women less likely to interrupt? Are men or women more agreeable?

So what, like?

Don't ask, don't tell?

GrannyGravy13

Stonewall trying to keep itself relevant

It is absolutely nobody’s business who anyone chooses to have consensual sex with.

Agreed.

Oh for goodness sake.

It was an IPSOS omnibus survey on behalf of Stonewall.

No advertisers, no social science students, no PhDs.

I probably phrased the title wrongly. It should be 'Are young people more likely to be gay?' or something like that? I'm not sure how you can phrase it. I wasn't asking whether young heterosexual people would actually change their sexuality and turn gay.

Hithere

Why is there a need for such "studies"?

So many social science students doing PHDs?
They have to choose something.

The headline 'Are young people turning gay?' did make me laugh - and instantly brought back memories of the online 'Dailymailomatic' headline generator that we'd giggle over at work.

It seems to me that “GenZ” so called, are much less concerned or judgemental, and more relaxed about gender and sexuality than previous generations. I believe this can only be a good thing, enabling people to live their lives without fear or harassment because of how they identify.

I’m not sure that Surveys are of much use, except perhaps to raise awareness. This survey was reported in the Mail on Line. Haven’t seen it elsewhere.

Were children surveyed?

No, young people are not turning gay....you are either gay or you're not.
What is happening is that young people are being forced to question their sexuality way before it should be an issue for them.
Puberty is the time when a person becomes truly aware sexually. They need to know that there are people they can discuss things with and gain advice if necessary.
Until then, the subject should be left alone.

Hithere

Why is there a need for such "studies"?

I think it helps advertisers to target their products.

Communities make it easier for us to get the right kind of help and support and labels help us meet the right people who accept us as who we are...

Why is there a need for such "studies"?

I think for some minority groups who have been isolated and discriminated against, being part of their 'community' is something that is safe. I don't think it should be criticised. This obviously doesn't just apply to LBGT groups

Thank you Lathyrus. I do agree, but sometimes feel as though, by calling themselves the 'gay community' , they are isolating themselves. It does, of course, depend on the context in which it is used.

And of course we can belong to a number if different communities at the same time. You can consider your a member of the gay community because those issues affect you and at the same time be part of the U3a community or the Allotment community or whatever.

I don’t think “community” is used in any exclusionary way as far as gay people are concerned. More as an identification of people who have the same interests or sometimes difficulties.

I think we naturally make communities within the wider community in which we live. Around here we have the retired community with a thriving U3a and within that smaller communities of walkers, musicians, bowlers etc who don’t just do the activity but meet socially and support each other.

So I don’t think * Joy* you need to read any more into it than that except when a “community” comes under threat somehow from others. Then people will unite to defend their mutual interests as the bowlers here are doing with the threat of closure of the bowling greens.

Gay people have needed that voice in the past and increasingly are needing it to counteract the actions of the Transactivists who are lobbying for Gay Erasure.

That’s why it’s important for everyone to understand the difference between LGB and TQ and not lump them together for anything.

Oldwoman70

Why the need to label people? As others have said many people experiment until they find what they really are, be that straight, gay, transgender, bisexual or anything else. Shouldn't we just be accepting people as people regardless of their sexual orientation.

Could not agree more, Olderwoman70.

I get irritated hearing the expression 'gay community' and wonder if it has evolved because the wider community makes them feel excluded or because they choose to be apart. Either way, is it really a good thing. Can't we all just live together as one?

MissAdventure

I don't care who is doing what, or why.

Exactly. It's genitals on genitals. Does it really matter if its an innie or an outie?

Choice is possible. As is experimentation.

also it was illegal in the 70s

There is only 15% difference so presumably it's just because it is more acceptable? I am not a boomer but even in the 90s it wouldn't have been acceptable in the community where I grew up or in my family. Whereas if my own children in their 20s were gay it would just be accepted

I realise discrimination still exists but not to the degree it has done in the past