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Queer Kids

The Challenges and Promise for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth

• By Phd, John Dececco, Robert E. Owens

• Price: $24.95
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 380
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 1st June 1998
• ISBN: 978-1-56023-929-1

About the Book

Packed to the hilt with living narratives, scholarly research, and problem-solution scenarios, Queer Kids: The Challenges and Promise for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth examines the unique challenges faced by today’s homosexual young adults. You’ll learn what modern-day queer kids do to cope, survive, and find understanding in a world riddled with homophobic intolerance.

Queer Kids is a lens of clarity that will help the average straight adult--and maybe even the average gay adult--see things from a kid’s point of view. Its detail-oriented, well-wrought chapters will provide you with literally hundreds of stories of young people who are trying to define themselves sexually and emotionally in a society of criss-crossing judgment, stereotyping, anger, and expectation. Aimed at three target groups--counselors, parents, and youth--this book introduces you to a variety of interesting kids, offers you a look at the process of coming out, and helps you grasp the experience of queer identification. Specifically, you’ll read about:

• queer kids and their families and peers
• the medical/health care profession’s impact on queer kids
• the teachers and counselors of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth
• how to alleviate harrassment, abuse, withdrawal, and loneliness
• the effects of familial denial, prejudiced counselors, and standoffish gay adults
  
  Being a kid is tough--but being a queer kid can be even tougher. Fortunately, Queer Kids is available for students, ministers, teachers, youth- and health-care workers, and especially the friends and families of teens who are working through the personal turbulence that too often accompanies sexual and emotional definition. Guided by its upfront approach and practical resource list of written, computer, and telephone aids, you’ll see that a solution is not as distant as you think. Read it, and relearn what it means to be a kid again.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface

• Acknowledgments
• Who Are Queer Kids?
• A Working Vocabulary
• Conclusion
• “Becoming” Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual
• Feeling Different
• Awareness of Same-Sex Attractions
• First Sexual Contacts and Dating
• Self-Identification
• Conclusion
• Coming Out of the Closet
• Stages
• Conclusion
• Challenges for Queer Kids
• What Challenges?
• Conclusion
• The Special Problem of Schools
• School Personnel
• Curriculum
• Harassment and Violence
• Extracurricular Activities
• College Campuses
• Conclusion
• Outcomes for Sexual-Minority Youths
• Statistics
• The Pluses
• Addressing the Needs of Queer Kids
• Change Societal Attitudes
• Provide More Role Models
• Educate Families
• Eliminate Untenable School Conditions
• Monitor Juvenile Courts
• Establish Special Programs and Schools
• Open All Youth Programs to Lesbian and Gay Youth
• Involve the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community
• Train More Knowledgeable and Unbiased Professionals
• Organize College Students
• Conclusion: Who Owns the Problem?
• Counseling
• Difficulties in Serving Queer Kids
• Education of the Counselor
• Getting ’Em in the Door
• Keeping ’Em There
• Counseling Beyond the Individual Teen
• Helping Suicidal Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youths
• Conclusion
• Counseling for Coming Out
• Challenges to Coming Out
• Counseling Others
• Conclusion
• Parental Acceptance
• Acceptance of a Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual Child
• Acceptance of a Partner or Lover
• Sharing with Others
• Conclusion
• Letter to a Queer Kid
• Who Are You?
• Being Different
• Take Pride in Yourself
• Coming Out
• A Relationshp: That Special Someone
• Gender Needs
• Choosing a Counselor
• Living with Parents
• Celebrate Yourself
• Conclusion
• Resources
• Useful Books for Youth, Counselors, and Family
• Videos
• On-Line Resources
• Talk Lines/Hotlines/Crisis Lines
• National Organizations
• Youth Groups and Support Services
• Pen Pal Services
• Notes
• Bibliography