Children of Horizons

How Gay and Lesbian Teens Are Leading a New Way Out of the Closet

Datos Bibliográficos

ID24196128
AutoresGilbert H Herdt
Año1993
Páginas290
Fecha de publicación1993-01-01
Open AccessNo
TipoBOOK
Reseñado porChildren of Horizons: How Gay and Lesbian Teens are Leading a New Way out of the Closet, Nancy Whittier, 1994
RevistaChildren of Horizons (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialBeacon Press (PUBLISHER)
ISBN9780807079287
Open LibraryOL1736707M
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas58

At Horizons, a lesbian and gay social service agency in Chicago, teens gather weekly to get support and share experiences as they begin the process of coming out. When they first join the group, they are often tentative, lonely, and even suicidal as they face the threat of rejection by family and friends. Gilbert Herdt, an anthropologist, and Andrew Boxer, a developmental psychologist, spent two years studying a diverse group of teens at Horizons. In both personal portraits and accounts of group meetings and activities, the authors follow the youth along a path that takes them from loneliness and secrecy to active participation in public gay and lesbian culture. The authors found that the majority of the youth attending the group were not confused about their sexuality; rather they were fearful and unsure about how to express themselves in an intensely homophobic society. When they feel free to come out of the closet, they emerge from this process both psychologically healthy and as socially competent as their heterosexual peers. For the first time in history, self-identified gay and lesbian youth are coming out while they are still in their teenage years. Despite this unprecedented cultural development, there is almost no information available on their lives. As an invisible minority, stereotypes about them still abound: they are confused, or mentally ill, or corrupted and seduced by older homosexuals into a secret society. Children of Horizons is a groundbreaking study that confronts these myths about gay and lesbian youth and explores their real experiences of coming out. Herdt and Boxer have uncovered an important generational change as attitudes about sexual identity are beginning to free our youth from a crippling self-doubt. This study of a new generation of courageous teenagers promises to change the way people understand gay men and lesbians in American society today.

Case studies · Chicago · Closeted gays · Coming out (sexual identity) · Coming out (Sexual orientation) · Coming-out · Female Homosexuality · Gay teenagers · Gays · Horizons Social Services Inc. (Chicago, Ill.) · Identity · Illinois · Lesbian teenagers · Male Homosexuality · Social networks · united states · Youth

Herramientas