voided. Another teen may feel homosexual tendencies, but the household and community they live in may be totally homophobic. This person may have several conflicts if he or she was to come out, or they may not come out at all. Environment plays a big role on whether or not a person decides to come out of the closet.Education plays a large role in a child’s or adolescent’s identification of their sexual identity. If parents avoid the topic of homosexuality, their children will have a difficult time identifying and accepting it. If a child is aware of something’s existence, they are more likely to be accepting and understanding of Beck 4it. I remember when my family took a trip to Provincetown, MA, a largely homosexual populated area. My mother said to me, “you may see some things that you haven’t seen before. Sometimes instead of boys and girls dating, two boys might date or hold hands. This is a normal thing where we are going.” It is true that my eyes wandered towards these new and interesting things, but it was better that my mother brought up the topic beforehand. If not, I might have blurted some embarrassing phrase out such as “look at them!” This is an example of how education and discussion of homosexuality make children, and people in general, more understanding and accepting of it.The topic of homosexuality is also avoided in our nation’s public schools. When “Sex Education” was given to us in the fifth grade, we learned only that a man and a woman could have sexual relations. Besides the sexual aspect of it, the topic of two men or two women being in love or having a loving relationship was avoided. Schools then wonder why their students are homophobic by the time they reach high school. Since they have been unaware of it, it is not something that they are accustomed to, and, therefore, they form opinions about it earlier on. Education...
