Youth Guide

Leadership & wellness for all youth

Are You Ready to Come Out as a Gay Teen

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Coming out is a pretty tricky thing, especially when you are a gay teenager. It might be easy for some that have a good support structure, but the experience is never the same across the board. If you really want to make sure that you are building the support network that truly works for you, you’re going to have to eventually “come out” to the people that you trust.

Assembling people that love you is pretty easy, but the situation gets complicated when you start realizing how many people are at odds with the GLBT community. Suddenly your standing with certain people in your life may change, and that can be a really sad experience. Instead of feeling like you have to hold this awful secret (which isn’t awful, by the way), you can let it out and step into the life that you were always meant to have.

The first thing you need to do is try to find someone that is already “out”. There are meetups for gay teens where you can connect. Even if you’re not trying to get into a new gay relationship, you should still consider going to these meetups. They really are a wonderful way to connect with people that have a common lifestyle thread with you. You will be able to find someone that you can come out to.

Just having one person know that you are gay can help ease any type of tension that you have on your mind. The other good part about starting slow is that you can get help on how to present the information to your family.

It’s very common for the families of gay teenagers to be a little surprised. They might feel like you are in the wrong to come out with such a big secret, but the truth is that you cannot absorb their feelings — no matter how tempted you are. They might feel that it’s a fad that you’re going through, but that might not be the case at all. Only you can determine if this is something that you’re going to explore for a long time, or something that you’ll eventually grow out of.

But right now, in the present moment, you really need to understand that there is nothing wrong with you. You are wonderful just the way you are, and if people cannot accept you in your new gay life, then they really aren’t quite the people that you thought they would be.

Putting these tips into practice might be difficult, but don’t worry — we’re just getting started on helping you out! Check back regularly for plenty of articles!

Dealing with Bullies as a Gay Teen

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In a perfect world, everyone would just accept everyone as they are without all of the commentary and judgment, but it really doesn’t work that way. When you start coming out as a gay teen, there’s one thing that you’re going to have to face head-on, and that’s bullying. You don’t want anyone to bully you, but you also don’t want to run away from bullies. It only makes them feel like you’re going to just take anything that they dish out. You will need to stand up for yourself and be ready to defend yourself if it comes down to it.

Bullies tend to question and challenge anything that they don’t feel comfortable with. You have to remember that it’s really not about you at all. It’s really just about the insecurity that they feel. Many bullies have other things to deal with that they might not be able to visibly show. If you’re growing up in an unstable home, you might reach for power any way that you can get. It’s not fair and it’s certainly not right, but many bullies are bullies because they too are hurting. Having a little compassion for the people picking on you might be hard, but it will help you understand where they’re coming from and possibly why they’re giving you such a hard time.

Just because you understand where a bully is coming from doesn’t mean that you have to necessarily be friend with them. You should never tolerate bullying in any form. If people are giving you a hard time because they know that you’re gay, then you need to get someone else involved, like a teacher or another school official.

That’s what they’re there for. You might feel like you shouldn’t bring it up, because then you’re going to be dealing with the possibility that the teacher is against gays as well. The truth is that whatever they feel personally doesn’t matter. As long as you attend the same school as everyone else, you will need to make sure that you focus on the bigger picture.

Bullying can easily escalate into violence, so it’s important to make sure that you are being taken seriously. If you have to go all the way up to the school board, so be it — there are channels for that.

What about when the school itself is the ones that aren’t supporting you? That’s when you get the outside media involved. There are always local community groups that work with gay teens and bullying problems. Bullying is a problem that affects everyone, but gay teens are especially at risk because many people have an issue with gay life in general.

What you need to do is maintain your own self confidence. There are so many different feelings going on right now, especially as you come out. If you have people that already love you and support you as a gay teen, hold onto them! This is going to be a very hard time for you but as long as you have your friends and family around you, there’s nothing that you can’t move past eventually! Good luck out there!

The Importance of Good Health As a Gay Teen

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Welcome to life as a gay teen! If you’re been following along with many of the article son this site, you already know that we wish you nothing but the best of success in the days, weeks, months, and yes even years to come. So if you really want to take things to the next level you will need to start thinking about your health.

But why? Aren’t things going well for you right now? Well, yes. However, the future is always changing and you will need to make sure that you focus on your health for the long term.

If you don’t have good health, then you aren’t going to really have anything else. That’s something that applies to everyone, but it applies to gay youth even more. It’s much more likely for a gay teen to skip their physical than someone else, because they’re afraid that the doctor is going to out them to their parents. Of course, if your parents are perfectly okay with you being gay, that’s one thing. However, if you don’t have people that support you, being outed is probably one of your biggest fears.

Relax — the doctor is actually not going to reveal that information to your parents. It’s not something that puts you in danger, and it would just cause conflict. When you speak to your doctor, you’re protected by doctor-patient privilege — similar to when you’re speaking to a lawyer. If doctors were at liberty to speak freely about their patients, then they would end up never getting a patient to be honest with them.

Your health is important because you really can’t do anything else. If you want to enjoy your new gay lifestyle to the fullest, then good health is important.

Getting enough rest and avoiding stress is important. Yes, there might be some people in your life that really wish you didn’t come out to them, but the reality is this — who cares what other people think? The reality here is that life is very short and you have to make the most out of the life that you have instead of always hoping that things will be different.

You have to learn to be confident in yourself because no one is going to want your dreams more than you do. You just have to make sure that you reach out and handle things as they come instead of constantly worrying what people think. Stress is one of the leading causes of the classic diseases that many struggle with — you don’t want to go through that if you can help it.

Take care of you first and let the rest roll off your back! Good luck out there!