Gayness as a kid?

[midwestgirl89]

I was having a conversation earlier with a gay male friend about how we were different as kids when it came to gender conformity/toy use. By this I mean he played with dolls and wanted to be rescued by a knight whereas I wanted to play war with animals and rescue a princess. I never liked "girly" things. I also had a strange fascination with Baywatch because I had a crush on one of the women (although I didn't know it was a crush at the time).

Were there things about you as a kid that you look back on now and think may have been signs of your sexuality? Did you feel different when you were little? Do you think we can tell when someone is gay at a young age?

[Danny19]

yea i loved barbies -_-. lol. yet i loved hot wheels and guns.
i liked to do my moms hair
i liked heels and dresses
i liked to watch princess movies lol

however i loved more boy stuff than girl stuff. i eventually grew out of that stuff. lol

[Fugs]

I was always a little bit feminine but I didn't play with dolls or anything. I do remember back during 5th grade when I rallied a bunch of friends together to hold an all out offensive on the cootie infestation. We chased girls around the playground shouting at them to be cleansed or something.

[Raeil]

I can't remember much of my childhood that was feminine, but one dream in particular stands out as a major clue. I had it three nights in a row, which is why I remember it (for some reason, when I was younger, I believed that having a dream three nights in a row meant that it would come true). Essentially, I would be high in the air, not falling or flying, just high in the air. I had the strongest sense that I was waiting for someone, for a prince, actually, to come and take me away from the sky so we could live happily ever after.

It's somewhat obvious to me now why I knew I was waiting for a prince, instead of a princess (or dreaming of going to the sky to rescue/find my princess), but when I was younger I had no idea what it meant. This was before the anti-gay rhetoric from my church/family had kicked in, but I kept the dream to myself anyway. I'm really happy I managed to remember it over time, because it's just one more piece of evidence that I am who I am because it's who I was meant to be, not because of any external post-puberty decisions.

[needshelp]

well, yeah. the thing is i never played with barbie dolls nor was i interested in playing with them. i also wasn't dressing up in women's clothing either but i did act really effeminate as a kid to the point where it seemed a bit weird. there were people that thought that i may be gay because of how i acted despite me flirting with girls and trying to have a girlfriend when i was very young like say in the single digits. i would say that the things from the past has left me very confused with myself and that all the input that i've received concerning this and now, is not helping me understand it especially when i had girl and guy crushes as a kid. now i'm trying to use the past and the present to help me understand.

[Remoteboy]

Nah I don't think so. I played with toy soldiers, lego, power rangers, transformers and little toy cars when I was a youngling. I thought dolls were icky. In regards to behaviour don't think I did anything stereotypically gay until quite recently when I began to want to come out. My parents told me that they only began to suspect I was gay at the start of this year.

So I think it really depends on the kid, some boys are super girly from a young age and turn out to be gay, others aren't gay.

[Enaithor]

I liked a lot of feminine toys. But I also liked a fair few masculine ones, just not footballs and things.

[Daisy1]

Originally Posted by Raeil

I can't remember much of my childhood that was feminine, but one dream in particular stands out as a major clue. I had it three nights in a row, which is why I remember it (for some reason, when I was younger, I believed that having a dream three nights in a row meant that it would come true). Essentially, I would be high in the air, not falling or flying, just high in the air. I had the strongest sense that I was waiting for someone, for a prince, actually, to come and take me away from the sky so we could live happily ever after.

It's somewhat obvious to me now why I knew I was waiting for a prince, instead of a princess (or dreaming of going to the sky to rescue/find my princess), but when I was younger I had no idea what it meant. This was before the anti-gay rhetoric from my church/family had kicked in, but I kept the dream to myself anyway. I'm really happy I managed to remember it over time, because it's just one more piece of evidence that I am who I am because it's who I was meant to be, not because of any external post-puberty decisions.

That's really cool and interesting!

There were some real clues for me as well. I wore a bomber jacket and a painter's hat to school every day. (It looked cute!) I played with teenage mutant ninja turtle figurines and legos. And I hated dresses.

I was a baby dyke!

[maverick]

I was a stereotypical baby dyke as well.

I wore a bomber jacket and a painter's hat to school every day. (It looked cute!) I played with teenage mutant ninja turtle figurines and legos.

^ All this.

I was just all tomboy as a little kid, but I can see where my parents were getting mixed signals as I grew older because my interests were so diverse. I mean, I was into everything masculine, but even my more "girly" interests were stereotypically gay (interior design, showtunes, baking...lol...)

[British Lad]

I had more fun with my Mums best friends girls toys then my own, and when I younger my Favorite toy was a hoover.

[Z3ni]

I only dressed up and wore jewelry ONCE! and played shopping market, and I had little bear toys.

But also I liked to play in the garden with bugs and soil etc, and play fighting.

I actually enjoyed both, but the girly side started to fade away...

Now I like martial arts etc, but I have tried the wearing eye liner a few times

[thecat06]

I was a major tomboy when I was little. I liked to play with the guys instead of the girls.

[Heyitsme]

In the early years of elementary school, I always played on the girls team in the boys vs. girls cootie war.

I only invited girls to my 7th birthday party. I was more interested in the toys they brought over than the presents that I got

Eventually I was basically the elementary school version of a gay best friend, calling up my girl friends on the phone and talking about clothes and stuff for hours.

Needless to say, it really is a shocker to me that nobody had any inkling that I was gay until these past few years

[Eric]

I generally preferred to play with Hot Wheels, Legos, GI-Joe's, your typical masculine toys. There are a few embarrassing things that I did that sorta tipped off that I was gay as a kid, but I'd rather not talk about that.

[solarcat]

I was always more of a boy than a girl. I never saw the point of Barbie, and preferred GI-Joe, army men, LEGOs, and such. I secretly kinda liked the apearance of some of the girly stuff, but my toys were always your basic boys' stuff.

[nerdvain]

I've never been too feminine a gay, but growing up, I always just identified with the females more than I did the males. They would play dodgeball and kickball during recess whereas I would hang out with the girls who played with their Bratz dolls.
Not that I liked Bratz dolls, I just enjoyed hanging out with the girls more.

ALSO

Once, when I was I think three and my aunt was watching my sisters and me, I spontaneously ran into the living room, jumped up on the coffee table (in my underwear), and screamed, "I'm a fairy princess!"
To which she replied, "Yeah...let's keep that between us."
So...I guess it was before I was.

[Noir]

When I think about it, as a child even though I liked girly things and even imagined what my future boyfriend would be like, when projecting my imagination as a character when I would pretend with my sis I typically had a "male mind frame." I always thought of how pretty girls were and how men, even when pretending, were awfully plain and uninteresting to me. I would commonly pretend that I was a male role, and while I did like stories with a normal boy and girl couple, I was kind of thinking of myself from the guy's point of view, not the girl's.

Once when I was maybe five I even got a little excited thinking "what if I was the guy and the girl liked me?" It felt really strange to me thinking like that as a child, but I guess that should have been my first red flag. I also went through a tomboy stage at age five--I had a boy-cut and everything! XD

[Undecided John]

Well, if my toys showed anything, it was that I would be a BIG nerd. The Lego was really my favorite thing, and even at a very young age, I was a crazy reader.
In middle school (the brazilian equivalent) I used to hang out more with the girls, but more because I just wasn't into playing soccer with coca-cola cans, which was what all the other boys liked doing. But as I grew up, I eventually found other hopeless nerd guys like me.
Funny thing, now at college, I just freak out when close to girls in general (just a few friends I don't get all weird). Go figure it out =/

[seeksanctuary]

Sexuality =/= gender expression.

I'd say your gay friend just happened to enjoy more femme things... as some people do. =] There are feminine men, masculine men, and anywhere in between; same goes for anyone of any other gender or lack thereof.

I myself liked playing pretend and I had an army of stuffed animals, but Power Rangers and TMNTs were a love of mine as well. I'm feminine now and enjoy clothes, make-up, etc... probably because I finally accepted when I transitioned that it's OKAY for men to like those things... but I was never especially feminine growing up.

... I just tried to kiss boys, lol. =P

[TheAnonymity]

Well, I was fascinated by jewelry. I'd talk about it with my grandmother all the time. She even bought a ring for me, which was pretty cool. She bought me a jewelry making kit, even, came in a nice little pink box. I guess my fascination with crystals tied in nicely with the whole me being gay thing.

Other things are I'd play with my sisters and their barbie toys, and I would have an oddly close obsession with TV characters, like Doctor Who.

I even had long hair, which I liked for a short while, but then people kept mistaking me for a girl, and I hated it, but me, very resistant to change in my daily habits and whatnot (I have only one band that I listen to, and a specific set of songs that I listen to, for example) let it stay long. Fortunately, I finally got up the courage to get it cut short at a barbershop in Magic Kingdom, and it looked pretty damn good (best barbers I've ever gone to are there).

Anyways though, I'm starting to ramble on, so I'm going to end here.