New Gay Teenager

Ritch C. Savin-Williams is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University.

• Preface 1. Why the New Gay Teenager? 2. Who's Gay? 3. In the Beginning... Was Gay Youth 4. Models or Trajectories? 5. Feeling Different 6. Same-Sex Attractions 7. First Sex 8. Identity 9. Resilience and Diversity 10. Refusing and Resisting Sexual Identity Labels Notes References Index

That there has been a sea change in attitudes about sexual minorities in the past few generations is not news. What is remarkable, however, is the growing nonchalance of contemporary adolescents about their own sexuality. Savin-Williams, a pioneer in the study of sexual minority youth and the author of several groundbreaking books, admits that ‘gay’ may be a misnomer for the teens he interviewed. Many reject labels altogether and prefer to see themselves as free agents. Savin-Williams, likewise, rejects the developmental-stage ideas of sexual identity that have dominated psychological theory for over 30 years. Most important, by carefully listening to the experiences of the teenagers, he confirms what many other observers have noted: the generation coming of age now has increasingly open ideas about sexuality that will likely create huge cultural shifts in the coming decades.