The Independent Gay Forum

Young Gay Rites

April 27, 2008

In the New York Times Magazine, a young gay man writes about young gay men being far more relationship-oriented these days:

But young gay men today are coming of age in a different time from the baby-boom generation of gays and lesbians who fashioned modern gay culture in this country — or even from me, a gay man in his early 30s. While being a gay teenager today can still be difficult and potentially dangerous (particularly for those who live in noncosmopolitan areas or are considered effeminate), gay teenagers are coming out earlier and are increasingly able to experience their gay adolescence. That, in turn, has made them more likely to feel normal. Many young gay men don't see themselves as all that different from their heterosexual peers, and many profess to want what they've long seen espoused by mainstream American culture: a long-term relationship and the chance to start a family.

The article comes complete with photographs that look like 1950s advertisements. Changing times, indeed!

by Stephen H. Miller