How Young is "Too" Young to know?

I say that you can realize you are "different" from a very young age like 5-7 even, hearing of even seven and eight year olds coming out to their parents. I think you know for sure once you can start getting romantic and sexual feelings when puberty starts.

 

I'm very suspect of people saying they knew (or know) before they are in puberty. You don't develop genuine sexual attraction until puberty, ergo you can't really say you are gay or straight or bisexual or anything else until then.

Trans* is different and can be realised before puberty.

 

I absolutely think that some people know very early on, but I don't think you can absolutely be sure before puberty. I would say that generally kids are going through many changes at age 13-15 and it's a very confusing experience. So I would approximately say 15.

 

I doubt there is a specific age. Anyway, I'm not going to tell a kid that they're just being stupid, they don't know anything. If they tell me they're gay, I'll believe them.

 

I don't think there's a certain age, but very young, you can probably feel different from others, and then it all depends on how you mature up. At the age of 10, I was VERY mature for my age, I spoke to people online and they thought I was around 18. At 11 I became bicurious and only a few months later I did come out as bisexual, and I have been ever since.

I act even less mature now but I'm still sure I am, I just think that it depends on maturity and how mature a person can be in the situation where they think they're not who they are and whatnot. It's also different between gender and orientation, gender you can notice at a young age and be "diagnosed" as such, at a young age also. Whereas with orientation, some parents usually just say "It's a phase," or, "You're not old enough to know," so it does depend.

 

I don't think you can know before you've reached puberty. But once you've entered puberty, you'll be getting a pretty clear message about it. It's only due to our heteronormative society that some people take longer than that to figure it out.

 

Yeah, its unfortunate that even with the most accepting parents, you are still assumed to be heterosexual until proven otherwise. It might be better to treat sexuality as undefined until the child starts to feel sexual attraction. I plan on doing that with my kids anyway.

 

I think it can be realized pretty early. I knew I was non gender-conforming around 5, so it's definitely possible that someone can know they're gay that early. Sure, it could be just a phase, but people can't treat it like that. I never "grew out" of my gender identity. There are just people who are very perceptive at a young age.

 

I first realized I had sexual feelings for males when I was 14. But looking back on my life, even before I was raped at 9, I have always been gay. Always.

 

I do not think someone is ever too young to know. I think sexual orientation is one of those things that people can realize about themselves at any age. If someone can know at 11 that they are heterosexual, a person can certainly know at 11 if they like the same sex.

 

I think 11 was when I was first starting to get interested in sex, so yeah he could know by then. Some people that I know say they've known they were gay their whole lives, some had a rude awakening. My aunt who's as gay as they come tried to be with men in college, and that failed worse than Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

 

You can never be too young to know.

I knew when I was 10/11.

 

Actually sexual thoughts and fantasies can start at a much younger age than puberty, although they may differ in content. I think people don't want to think of younger kids as having any sexual feelings, but they do.

 

I have heard someone on EC say they were aged 4 !

 

I started questioning my sexuality at 12.

I became fascinated by penises at 3.

I don't think there's such thing as too young.

 

well, i hit puberty when i was 10, but i didn't know i was gay until i was 14. i thought i was straight, but now the thought of being with a girl makes me feel sick. literally

 

It's never too young to know. Young children probably don't know yet why they feel different, only that they do.
I always felt different for not having any interest in boys and after a while it made me believe there was something very wrong with me that I was born with and could never be fixed. That was terrible. Or when my teachers in kindergarten hated me and made me feel different and I had no idea why.
I wish someone had told me what being gay really meant and people didn't just throw it around as an insult.

 

I don't agree with this.:icon_wink

Neil Patrick Harris realized that he was gay when he was around 7-8 (source: Oprah).

I, too, realized that I had this 'thing' for men and boys when I was around that age (7-10). I just felt good when I got touchy with guys, but not girls. At 6, my first crush was a minister - he was that 'tall, dark and handsome' type. At 9, my 2nd crush was a boy in a wedding I encountered - I cried for him in the next day, knowing that I will never see him again.

With that being said I didn't realize that I was gay until I turned 17. Maybe that's because I was in denial - I don't know.

 

I knew the second I had a crush on Edward Cullen, which was rather early.