Teaching your children about homosexuality

[exUte]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

If my son is on this theoretical tipping point of being gay or not (assuming such a tipping point exists), I'm going to be trying to tip him towards the straight side. But I don't know if intervening would mean anything. Or what intervening would be. "Hey, chicks are hot. Trust me. It's much better with a chick, not that I have tried anything else."

Being gay is a hard life, I think, that I wouldn't wish on anyone. I know many gays are very happy, but even for those I think it was tough to get to that happy place.

Sort of like if my son wants to be a girl or thinks he is a girl (like was featured on NPR not that long ago)--I would deeply prefer that he want to be a boy.

I think in teaching about the law of chastity, I will just provide the guidelines of sex is special/sacred, to be done with one's eternal companion, i.e. the woman you choose to marry who actually says yes.

Now the more complex question is how I would instruct my son to live if he were out-and-out gay. Would I tell him to live like a monk and deny himself til he died and this would lead to his greatest happiness? Or would I just say, look this church has no place for you, it doesn't know what to do with people like you, find your own way, and be as happy as you can.

I thought you were born that way...........

[Levin]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I would say "tell me more about what you mean."

"Dad, you know what I mean. Don't make me spell it out for you; that's cruel. I'm physically attracted to other boys, and I'm only 14. What does this mean and what should I do?"

[Levin]

Originally Posted by Levin

"Dad, you know what I mean. Don't make me spell it out for you; that's cruel. I'm physically attracted to other boys, and I'm only 14. What does this mean and what should I do?"

I understand why you don't want to answer this, Waters. What you say to your son would depart from the ethos you impart here.

[BlueHair]

Originally Posted by Levin

A series of questions that I'd be particularly interested in hearing MikeWaters answer:

If your adolescent son comes to you and says he is attracted to other men,

(1) Will you tell him that this means he is gay?

(2) Will you encourage him to act on these sexual urges?

(3) Will you ask if he is also attracted to women?

Another question:

(1) Will you teach your kids that homosexuality is a sin and contrary to God's will?

Here are my answers:

(1) No, I wouldn't say this means he is gay. I would want to wait out the tumultuous and evanescent years of adolescence before we adopt this identity for him.

(2) No, I wouldn't encourage him to act on these sexual urges. I would ask him to lean on me for strength and support through his adolescent years.

(3) Yes, I would ask him if he is also attracted to women.

And on the other question:

(1) Yes, I will teach my children that homosexuality is contrary to God's will. And then we'll have Alan, one of my best friends who happens to be gay, over for dinner as we usually do at least once a week, call his bisexual cousin Alexandria on the phone as we often do, and send him over to play at our lesbian neighbor's house (where he often is already, and where he had his first sip of wine, thinking it was grape juice).

I will tell him that he has raging hormones and it is normal to feel attracted to other human beings. Because it's a hard and confusing time in his life I would ask him not to engage in sexual intercourse with either sex as he is still developing emotionally and he needs to be more mature.

I won't teach him that being gay is against God's will. I will tell him that there are people who hate gay people, but I am not one of those people. I will be honest and tell him I don't know exactly what God's will is. I will warn him that other people will claim to know what God's will is, but he doesn't have to believe them. Revelation given to others is hearsay (see Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason). If he wants to know what God wants, he will have to ask himself and get his own answer. He will know of my unconditional love and total support for him.

My only hope is he doesn't grow up to be an asshole.

[bigpiney]

Originally Posted by Colly Wolly

Did anyone see the panda special that NBC did as part of their Olympic coverage? They showed this panda habitat, and there were a couple of pandas that were having trouble mating. They ended up showing the pandas "panda porn". There was literally a tv and speakers right outside their pen showing pandas bumping uglies.

Is this offensive and bogus?

I saw that and was laughing. The panda porn was great. Though they could have edited the scene a little better, the story didn't seem to flow well. Like we are to believe that the guy panda was there just to fix a leaky sink, yeah right.

[BYU71]

This might be crude, so if you don't like crude stuff, please, please don't read on.

I would explain to my young sons how gay guys have sex. After that I would let them obtain additional information on their own and not influence them any way after that.

I teach my kids to be tolerant and respectful of other peoples ideas and beliefs and hope that lesson will give the tools to not be hateful toward gays.

[RC Vikings]

Just have them watch MTV for a week. After one week they not only will understand homosexuality they may even be a little bummed they aren't gay also.