Coming Out in Middle School

You should read this NYT Magazine story, if only to get a snapshot of how much more complicated things seem to be for budding adolescents today:

Austin doesn’t have to play “the pretend game,” as he calls it, anymore. At his middle school, he has come out to his close friends, who have been supportive. A few of his female friends responded that they were bisexual. “Half the girls I know are bisexual,” he said. . . .

“When I first realized I was gay,” Austin interjected, “I just assumed I would hide it and be miserable for the rest of my life. But then I said, ‘O.K., wait, I don’t want to hide this and be miserable my whole life.’ ”

I asked him how old he was when he made that decision.

“Eleven,” he said.  

I cannot help but wonder if this article reflects our culture's increasing sexualization of childhood as much as our emerging awareness and affirmation of gays and lesbians in our midst.

UPDATE: Thanks to Ryan Anderson for forwarding to me Paul Scalia's essay, "A Label That Sticks."