Grandpa gays

Kenneth Felts is a testament

At the age of 90, Kenneth Felts came out as gay and decided to search for the love of his life. The Colorado grandfather's coming out story went viral. ‪@twogaygrandpastravel‬ run wild in #miamibeach Well okay, maybe we kinda walked wild to explore all the #nightlife #food and #music this vibrant city has to offer. From #mojitos to #cubanfood.

When Jeffrey Perri was growing up in Rochester, New York, his grandfather, Tony Perri, came out to him as gay. Jeffrey was only 9 years old. Years later, Jeffrey also came out, and what was already a close relationship became something even more meaningful for both of them. There was Ken, the cisgender straight divorced father and Korean War veteran who led a quiet simple life in Colorado.

Then there was Larry, the gay man hidden deep within himself who was too. Ruth and Roman met just before the Nazis began to occupy Poland. During that time, it was dangerous to be Jew, gay, or a member of any marginalized group, said Brandon. When the two met, they. Posted July 8, My grandson is bright and inquisitive, but I was surprised to have such an open and sophisticated discussion about sexuality with him.

How did you receive your education about sex? My own came from a female classmate between seventh and eighth grade, as we sat late one summer night behind the funeral home in my small hometown in Nebraska. She told me what she could remember from the movie the girls had watched in the fifth grade. Boys got nothing; they were expected either to know it intuitively or to have learned it from the farm boys who knew something about animal husbandry.

I remember hearing how frightened some young girls and boys were when they, unprepared, had experienced their first menstrual period or first wet dream.

In speaking with my grandsons about their class, they told me that the very first lesson they had studied was about how one in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused, and they learned what they could do if it happened to them. I told my grandson how pleased I was that he had received this educational opportunity. I hesitated. It is a word that can mean a whole lot of different things.

I stumbled through an explanation of embryonic development. But even as an old, gay psychiatrist who has spent some time researching these issues, I still get confused about the alphabet soup of letters, and I struggle to understand the issues surrounding the correct use of pronouns to describe gender. Times have changed, and our understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity has evolved. This link contains a useful list of definitions of the more commonly used terms.

The New York Times recently queried their readers to discover how readers defined themselves. A follow-up article described how sexual orientations and gender identities have been evolving. Respondents used a total of different words and phrases to describe their sexual and gender identifies, demonstrating that labels for sexual orientation and gender identities go far beyond the familiar labels, and that generational differences are significant.

As we seek to define ourselves, society seeks to define us first. Labels can be useful in allowing ourselves to be more comfortable with who we are, but they can also be quite damaging when applied to us by others based on their perceptions that we exhibit a limited number of characteristics associated with the stereotypes connected to the label. Although a bit too complicated for many young adolescents, it can give insight into this complex subject and can be useful in educating others.

For those of us who are older and struggling to understand sexual and gender identity and for fifth-grade boys and girls, perhaps a limited number of adjectives may be enough: straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. Or even just one word suffices: queer. But for the generations between youth and old age, in an era of social media , worldwide Pride events and a growing understanding of gender fluidity, these few words are far too limiting.

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