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When did you first hear the word gay;lesbian;bisexual;transgender;etc.?

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by AwkwardTalker, Jan 7, 2014.

  1. AwkwardTalker

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    And what did you think?

    I was seven or eight when I heard some of my family use the word gay. I knew they didn't mean gay as in happy but something else. I asked my family what gay meant. Nobody would tell me. I was walking to the shop with my mother when I asked her. She said it meant happy. I asked her again. She told me it meant a boy liked another boy. I just went "Oh" and continued on talking about whatever I had been talking about.
     
  2. BryanM

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    Gay/Lesbian - at about 7 or 8. Most people had a negative view of gay people at the time, but I didn't know why. I was accepting of gay people even before I realized I myself am gay.

    Bisexual - 11. Again, I was a bit confused of the concept of bisexuality, but I was like "live and let live".

    Transgender - 13. I knew some people felt like another gender other than their birth gender and that was okay too.
     
  3. Mathnskating

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    My father is gay, so I grew up knowing what it was, and my best friend growing up had two mothers, so I knew that men could love men and women could love women. What was funny was that, even with that, I had some amusing assumptions about what a wedding was. The idea of two men or two women getting married was not weird to me, so much as I had a social construct of what a wedding was in my head. I was convinced that there had to be someone wearing a tux and someone wearing a dress. When I went to my first gay wedding when I was twelve I was blown away when both guys wore tuxes and they were both husbands.

    Twelve-year-old mind blown.

    I never really thought much of it. It didn't really hit me until I was older what being gay meant in a larger societal context.
     
  4. Ruthven

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    In elementary, like I don't what grade, maybe 2nd...but I was in the cafeteria sitting next to my friend, and I don't know some girl across from us (I think we knew her) called us "gay." And all I remember was my mum telling me it meant "happy" and that's it.
     
  5. chivalrous

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    i didnt here it till highschool year 7. i went to a catholic school so homosexuality was never mentioned in grade 5 i turned athiest to attempt getting out of religion class. there we better things to do then discuss morbid topics like eating and drinking jesus, body and blood
     
  6. PurpleGrey

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    I'm not sure, but I think the first time I heard the word "gay", I was in early elementary school. I was in the cafeteria and some girl did something nice, I don't remember what, and I tried to kiss her like Bugs Bunny. She pushed me away and said it was gay.

    I don't know about any other term. Maybe it's because I never had to ask what they mean, I just knew right away.
     
  7. My Two Wings

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    Gay: sometime in elementary school. Of course, back then, I knew it as an insult ("That's gay"/"You're gay"). I mean, we knew it meant "a boy who likes other boys or a girl who likes other girls", but we believed that was undesirable because "boys are supposed to make babies with girls" and whatnot.

    Not sure when I first knew of the word lesbian. Probably heard it around the same time, but I don't think I ever knew it as an insult. "Hurr hurr, lesbians are hot" and all that.

    Bisexual: middle school. There were a few students who were out as bi. I remember once thinking, "Why isn't everyone bi? Seems like you get the best of both worlds."

    Trans*: also middle school. I'll be honest, I first learned about the word transgender through porn (as well as the offensive terms). And then from high school to now, I properly learned (through the internet) the vastness of gender identities.

    Yeah, I was an ignorant child.
     
  8. Hexagon

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    Probably about nine. I don't know precisely.
     
  9. phoenix89

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    I learned Gay from the Carol, Deck the Halls, the rest were in middle and high school, with bisexuality being that last one I learned about. When my Mom gave the "talk" she cover all the bases, and then some. We were in the car and couldn't get away, so she kept going. I also have a trans* cousin, so I learned about rather young, and it was not really that big of a deal for my family.
     
  10. MatthewJS

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    Gay: about 3 or 4
    Lesbian: 6 or 7
    Bisexual: I think 9
    Transgender: 12 or 13
     
  11. itsonlyrelative

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    My parents actually accidentally took us down to DC when my brother and I were little to go for a picnic near the Smithsonian Merry Go Round (something we did regularly), the same day as a LGBT protest and I started asking questions. My parents hushed me then and took us home, but that night my mom explained what I had seen was and that some of her friends I already knew were actually gay and I just hadn't realized. I had never thought anything of my "Uncle" Craig and my "Uncle" Eric kissing.

    I did't really think much of it all, I just kinda threw that new information into the knowledge bin. Eric and Craig were happy, so I was all good.
     
    #11 itsonlyrelative, Jan 8, 2014
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2014
  12. darklord

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    Gay & lesbian... Another kid taught them to me around 7-9. Bisexual and transgender... I must have been around 13.
     
  13. AwesomGaytheist

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    I first heard the term "gay" when I was in the 4th grade, as it was big news back then that Massachusetts had become the first state to legalize gay marriage. We were all sitting around a table at lunch in 4th grade trying to figure out what the hell "gay" meant and what the hell it had to do with marriage.

    The term "lesbian?" Well, I remember thinking about it around age 10. I couldn't figure out how they had sex.

    I didn't hear bisexual until I was 14, after my aunt divorced her husband (Who still did and still does love her), took custody of their younger son, and the three of them up-and-left for Florida. When we made our yearly trip to Florida that year to see my grandma, she sat me down, as we were all pretty upset about this, my mom about the whole "lesbian" thing, and me the fact that she just told her loving husband to "have a nice life" and ran off with someone else. She said, "It's not that big a deal that I'm bisexual. She was later the first person I ever told that I was attracted to men.

    Transgender I remember hearing at I think 10 or 11, and that was something I somehow understood and accepted. Having watched medical shows with Dr. Mom, I understood how those people felt, and even how the surgery was done. My mom still has qualms about trans people for some reason. I was watching CNN one morning, and they were interviewing a trans-woman who won a tennis championship in the 1970's, and my mom walked through the living room and said her serious, stern "mom voice", "That is a man." I replied, "No, that used to be a man."
     
  14. FireSmoke

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    Gay and lesbian around 8 years old (me and my family told about an italian female singer who looks like a butch lesbian).

    Transgender aroung 10 years old, during a tv show (Big Brother).
     
  15. NotSureWhatIam

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    Gay: when I kissed another boy in the first grade and another kid laughed and said it was gay.
    Lesbian: funny enough I was watching friends and my mom turned off the TV when Carole got married to another girl.
    Bisexual: I was at my mom's college and she was shocked that her friends girlfriend was bisexual. She said "that means she can willy nilly love anybody and cheat on him (if you can't tell I have a very tolerant family)
    Transgender: My step mom let me watch Rocky Horror Picture show. (Which made my dad very unhappy)
     
  16. KWDBM

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    I honestly have no idea when I first heard gay/lesbian. Since I was knowledgeable enough to realize I might *be* a lesbian at age 9, I know it must've been awhile before that, but... I don't even remember. Same thing with bisexual... I have to mention that I grew up in the "gay neighborhood" so these terms would be commonplace.

    It was actually only 4 years ago or so when I first learned that "asexual" was a thing, when an internet friend mentioned that's how she identified during a chat conversation. I was curious about the term and looked it up to learn more.

    I'd heard of transgender for years, but never really understood it besides a very basic definition until I became friends with a trans-woman. That was... 3 years ago? (as for "what did you think"... well I now have a mega-crush on her, and I think my actual reaction was something like "Oh, interesting. Okay.")

    Things like pansexual and demisexual and such, I heard for the first time about a year ago in a "sexual orientation" thread on a petsite forum, of all places. When someone was describing how she realized she was pansexual, I realize I might fall into some "pan" category.
     
  17. stocking

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    I learned about lesbians from my dad I remember when i was little i heard the word lesbian being thrown around and i went and asked my dad " daddy what's a lesbian ? '' and my dad said " Well you see when women don't have have a man around , they turn to each other for love either because they are lonely or very horny "

    I learned about transgender people from a tv show the character in the show was a guy that felt like he was a woman and went to a woman's store to buy a dress . I I asked my dad again why does that man think he's a woman trapped in a man's body ? my dad just said " something is wrong with him and he's sick "
     
  18. Nikky DoUrden

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    Sexuality was always something I hidden and especially when I was younger I tried to be straight, but I didn't know what "gay" is ...
    I think it took me time, like, only when I was 13-14 to understand the word
     
  19. Capsaicin

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    One of the kids in my elementary class made a parody of the YMCA song, the Why Am I Gay song.
     
  20. Kreiger

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    I watched Buffy as it aired, and I was about 6 or 7 then, so I first learned about it from Alyson Hannigan.