[DykeOnByke25413]

To straight high school age or younger readers only: What have been the primary influences regarding your understanding, beliefs and comprehension of sexual orientation? Parents? Peers? Religious teachings? School? TV? Reading? Internet? What are those beliefs, and how have they changed (if any) since your earliest awareness that not everyone is heterosexual? Has first-hand exposure to gay friends or family members influenced your beliefs?
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User Detail :  

Name : DykeOnByke25413, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Lesbian, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 48, City : Southfield, State : MI, Country : United States, 

[Henry21498]

I have never really thought about it before, but I would have to say that my parents are the main influences. They did not tell me that being a homosexual or bisexual was right or wrong. They taught me the general meanings of what is right or wrong, and left the rest up to me. I am free to choose the path I want to follow. I accept the fact that people have different preferences, but I have had not had any exposures yet. A person’s sexual preference is only a small matter; what really matters is their personality.

User Detail :  

Name : Henry21498, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Disability : Deaf, Age : 18, City : Steamboat Springs, State : CO, Country : United States, 

[Manshiah W.]

Where I learned about homosexuality, lesbians and bisexuals, things of that sort, was from first-hand experience. I don’t watch very much TV, and when I do, I refuse to believe general societal opinions on another person’s sexuality. Who are they to judge who and what that person is? You can only be judged in the eyes of God. My belief on the matter is that you do not choose the life you live, it’s kind of given to you. A person really doesn’t choose to be gay; they just find themselves attracted to the same sex, and who you are attracted to can’t always be helped. So I think that as long as you are happy, society shouldn’t have anything to say, because at least you aren’t out robbing banks or killing anyone.

User Detail :  

Name : Manshiah W., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Baptist, Age : 16, City : Raleigh, State : NC, Country : United States, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 

[Jessica30642]

Mostly, my opinion of homosexuals came from the people I was around in childhood; my mother raised my half-brother and myself alone, and as she was a fairly open-minded person, more or less left us to our own opinions. My mother worked for years in the hotel and entertainment business, and while I don’t mean to be stereotypical, there *do* seem to be a lot of gay people working in the hotel and entertainment business. I and my brother were exposed to her friends growing up, several of whom happened to be gay men. As she was always up-front with their sexualities (‘Uncle Nick and Uncle Joe are a special kind of friends and love each other very much!’) I grew up regarding homosexuality as a very normal, every-day thing. I loved her friends as adoptive ‘uncles’, and since I never thought of their orientation as ‘wierd’ or ‘strange’, they never seemed threatening to me. Both I and my brother are two of the more comfortable people I’ve met, in terms of our sexualities. My brother is, in fact, one of the very few straight men I ever knew who had gay male friends! In this I assign credit to our mother, who made it a point to deride homophobes and who was never afraid to be proud of her friends, gay or straight.

User Detail :  

Name : Jessica30642, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 16, City : jackson, State : MS, Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 

[Hero21318]

I first realised that some people were gay when I was quite young – between 8 and 10 years old. I was watching the 10 o’clock news while my mum did my hair, and the word ‘homosexuals’ came up on the TV for some reason. Not having heard about it before I asked mum and dad about it, and dad explained that there were some people who ‘loved people of the same sex’ and pretty much impressed on me that they were no different from anybody else etc. Mum and Dad have few prejudices and those they do have are nothing to do with a persons sexuality, race etc. That was my first and the most lasting influence. I have never known (as far as I know) a gay person, so that has never affected any beliefs I have. Occasionally, the subject has come up when I am talking with my friends but nothing they have ever said influenced me to any extent. Mainly they are completely tolerent, although 1 of them has parents who are openly homophobic (they are devout christians). However this doesn’t seem to have affected my friend as she belives what she likes, and quite often laughs at her parents beliefs. It never ceases to annoy me that while at school they tell you all about different types of families – divorced, adoptions, fostering – but won’t/can’t broach the subject of homosexual families, and equally in so-called sex education, do not even mention the fact that not just a man and a woman have sex.

User Detail :  

Name : Hero21318, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Haven't settled on a sexuality yet!, Religion : Atheist, Age : 16, City : Aberdeen, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom, 

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