USA Today on Gay Teens

TOPICS: USA TODAY. Lesbian and gay market. US. Gay and lesbians teens getting more comfortable with revealing their sexuality to others. Cover story USA Today.

You are at the Out Now Gay Market News -- Gay Marketing 101 gay market updates site.

To reach our main site on lesbian and gay market research, gay advertising and gay marketing strategies, visit OutNowConsulting.com. To contact us, email info@outnowconsulting.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So here's the thing.

Since yesterday we have been deluged with people wanting to know more about the gay Snickers and resulting gay market Snickers controversy.

Our response? Just call them. I suspect most won't and we will not add anti Outfront comments here for sensible reasons.

In the meantime, here is a great USA Today cover story on gay teens coming out earlier -- now that's gotta be more uplifting than some sad story about Snickers and their Omnicom agency having a gay PR Outfront agency while engaging in advertising gay bashing, right?

The people at Snickers and Omnicom ought to read this stuff.

Here is an extract of that USA Today gay teens article:

Gay teens coming out earlier to peers and family
By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY

Kate Haigh, 18, a high school senior in St. Paul, recalls attending her first meeting at the school's Gay-Straight Alliance club when she was in the ninth grade. "I said, 'My name is Kate, and I'm a lesbian.' It was so liberating. I felt like something huge had been lifted off my shoulders, and finally I had people to talk to."

Zach Lundin, 16, has brought boyfriends to several dances at his high school in suburban Seattle.

Vance Smith wanted to start a club to support gay students at his rural Colorado school but says administrators balked. At age 15, Vance contacted a New York advocacy group that sent school officials a letter about students' legal rights. Now 17, Smith has his club.

Gay teenagers are "coming out" earlier than ever, and many feel better about themselves than earlier generations of gays, youth leaders and researchers say. The change is happening in the wake of opinion polls that show growing acceptance of gays, more supportive adults and positive gay role models in popular media.

"In my generation, you definitely didn't come out in high school. You had to move away from home to be gay," says Kevin Jennings, 43, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a national group that promotes a positive school climate for gay children. "Now so many are out while they're still at home. They're more vocal than we were."

Still, many continue to have a tough time. The worst off, experts say, are young people in conservative rural regions and children whose parents cannot abide having gay offspring. Taunting at school is still common. Cyber-bullying is "the new big thing," says Laura Sorensen of Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center in Ferndale, Mich. "Kids are getting hate mail and taunts on MySpace or Facebook."

But as young gays become more visible targets, they also have more sources of help, experts say. In the 11 years since Jennings founded the education network, parents have become more supportive of gay teens, he says. Also, the network has trained thousands of school officials on how to reduce gay bashing.

Schools are more likely than in the past to have openly gay staff members who can help young people, says Anthony D'Augelli, an associate dean at Pennsylvania State University. In a recent national survey, one-third of school psychologists said they had counseled students or parents about sexual orientation.

In the mid-1990s, a few dozen Gay-Straight Alliance clubs were in U.S. high schools; now 3,200 are registered with the education network, Jennings says.

The Internet also has eased isolation for gay teens, offering a place for socializing and support, says Stephanie Sanders of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction in Bloomington, Ind.

Cultural diversity is prevalent

Teens are coming out in an era when more Americans than ever consider homosexuality acceptable. In 2006, 54% found homosexuality acceptable, compared with 38% in 1992, Gallup polls show.

Youths also swim in a cultural sea that's far more pro-gay than ever, says Ritch Savin-Williams, a psychologist at Cornell University and author of The New Gay Teenager. From MTV's The Real World to Will & Grace and Ellen DeGeneres hosting the Oscars, "kids can see gays in a positive light," he says.

The news in December that Vice President Cheney's daughter Mary is expecting a baby with her female partner has even brought gay parenthood into the Bush administration family.

By the time parenthood becomes an option, many homosexuals have known their preferences for a long time. Gay males and lesbians often feel "different" as early as grade school, Sanders says.

Vance Smith, who grew up amid cornfields in LaSalle, Colo., recalls being made fun of and called "gay" as early as first grade. "I didn't even know what it was," he says. "I didn't know why I didn't like 'guy-type' stuff like sports or why I was always more comfortable hanging out with girls. And I didn't know why I should be punished for it." By middle school, "I always had a girlfriend, hoping people wouldn't know." But he couldn't make himself feel heterosexual, Smith says. And nobody was fooled, anyway.

Zach Lundin had been taught in church that homosexuality was wrong. "I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself I was straight," says Lundin, 17, of Kenmore, Wash. At age 14 he told his parents he was attracted to boys. "I said, 'I'm not going to lie to you anymore. This is what I'm really feeling.' "
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For further gay marketing information, or to seek gay market advice, please contact:

Ian Johnson, Managing Director, Out Now Consulting
UK landline: +44-20-8123 5288
BE landline: +32-2-514 6443
mobile: +32-4737 60886
web: OutNowConsulting.com
news: Gay Market News - Gay Market Updates by Out Now

Global gay marketing, strategy, PR, training, gay advertising, lesbian and gay market research leaders. Gay Market News is Gay Marketing 101 - The Out Now Gay Market Updates.
OutNowConsulting.com | GayMarketing101.com
Companies marketing & advertising to gays and lesbians.
Better targeting of the lesbian and gay consumer market.

gay market gay advertising gay marketing gay tourism gay travel pink dollar pink pound gay agency advertising marketing travel tourism gay lesbian gay and lesbian market research