As a Christian teenager, I get a good sense of “how” I should be from the Bible. In the Bible, it’s written that Jesus said, “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you.” Whether you are Christian, […]
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Figures on bathroom signs. Aisles at the toy store. Gender is represented everywhere. Colors, clothing and careers are even assigned genders: blue and pink, pants and skirts, doctors and nurses. Gender is often thought of as an either/or—man or…
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I grew up in a pretty conservative, rural, stuck-in-its-ways small town. It’s a town of crops and cattle where church parking lots are full on Sundays and the gravel dirt roads are paved by trucks with flat decks. Its residents […]
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“I’m gay, and I just came out a few months ago. I have not told my parents, and I’m pretty scared to. I think being gay is normal, but I’m not sure if my parents think so, too. I’m not […]
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By my sophomore year of high school, I had started to accept myself and my sexual orientation. I am asexual, meaning I don’t experience sexual attraction to anyone. So I was a bit shocked when I walked into an “LGBT+ […]
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I am a high school athlete, and I hear homophobic slurs all the time. Coaches use them to get you to try harder; kids use them on other players to make themselves feel stronger. This type of behavior has been […]
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This past spring, I went to Storrs, Connecticut to attend the True Colors Conference—a conference all about supporting teens of different sexual orientations and gender identities. All of the bathrooms at the conference were transformed into “all…
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I was 13 when I hinted to my dad that I was gay. We were in his car, and he was driving me home from my usual weekend visit with him. (My parents are divorced.) I asked him, “What would […]
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Living openly as a transgender person is NOT easy. For me, it always feels like someone is judging me and looking at me. I get questions like, “Are you a boy or a girl?” and “What are you?” because I […]
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“I believe a lot more teens would experiment sexually or even be a lot more comfortable with their sexuality if they didn’t fear being harassed, labeled or forced to identify with a particular group,” says Alexis, a 17-year-old from Cedar […]
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Like many little girls, I wanted to be a ballerina—the epitome of grace, beauty and femininity. As a child, I’d flip through sparkly picture books, play with Barbie dolls and stare at TV screens as dancers pirouetted across stage; all […]
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I’ve never fit the mold my parents had for me. They have been Jehovah’s Witnesses for decades. They believe it is a woman’s destiny to get married to a man, have his children and follow his lead as the head […]
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Nothing is as stressful as the thought of walking into school and saying to everyone “I’m gay” or “I’m transgender.” Being a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) teen can be confusing and stressful. Are you ready to be “out”…
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On June 12, 2016, a man entered a bustling gay nightclub in Orlando with a semi-automatic rifle, killed 49 clubgoers and injured 53 others. It was the deadliest anti-LGBTQ hate crime America had ever seen, and it had taken place […]
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For many people who identify as LGBTQ, coming out can be a way to show your true colors. Coming out is the process of sharing your sexual orientation and/or gender identity with others. Homophobia and transphobia—the irrational fear or hatred […]
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Almost 11 months ago, I realized something about myself—something that was quite unexpected. I realized I was not a girl. But I didn’t see myself as transgender either. Reading up on the existence of genders outside the binary—being either…
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