Age you know you're gay?

[Estu]

This is a question for any gay people out there, or people who have close gay friends. At what age does a person realize they are attracted to members of the opposite sex rather than members of the same sex? I know that some version of romantic attraction is common at young ages, like, say, a seven year old boy "liking" a seven year old girl. But maybe this is just because he sees boy-girl pairings and copies them - could this boy then, five years later, hit puberty and realize he actually likes boys and not girls? Is this the situation most of the time, or do even seven year old gay boys and girls already start developing crushes on the same sex?

[stormlord]

Teenager. I have a close friend who is gay and he realized it in his teenage years. When he was younger he thought he was attracted to girls for a short while. He tried hard to be straight. He was religious too, so maybe that delayed it. But he learned real quick that girls didn't do it for him.

I think there's a non-sexual side to things where people get confused. Like they might be attracted to personality or some from of idealism. And some people will experiment, even though they have a natural compulsion for a certain sex. Try anything at least once - is what they do. And then there're some girls that resemble boys and some boys that resemble girls, and that confuses things further.

Personally, I think it doesn't matter. There's a documentary and part of it's on youtube. It's about people who have intimate relations with objects. One of the ladies admitted to having a relationship with the golden gate bridge and even having passionate sex with it. There's a medical name for it, but can't recall.

I think people mix up sexual gratification with love too much. They're different. A person can love anything, even immaterial objects (like god or fictional characters). Similarly, people can have a sexual desire for all manner of things. When the two come together, people can mistakenly see them as the same thing. The reason this is bad is because it makes people think that love and sex together are somehow more special than love and sex apart. This creates a division. So if a man gets off sexually on a pair of boots but doesn't love them then he's condemned. He's forced to love the boots in order to fulfill his sexual desire, but in doing that, he isolates himself even further because you're not supposed to love a pair of boots. The orthodoxy has condemned that too. It's a trap. If people were more open minded then they'd just allow him to have his boots.

The world is not in danger of depopulating if there's a man that prefers boots over woman. The law of averages ensures that most people will be attracted to the opposite sex. But more than that, the necessity of reproduction does not demand that all members participate. Farming food, for example, is a necessity, but this doesn't demand that all people should be farmers. Having police on the streets is also necessary, but not everybody needs to be a policeman. If there's a sudden shortage of policeman or children, then they can recruit more policeman and the man with his boots can donate his sperm or something, so the worrying about it does nothing good for anyone. There's a sperm bank too if the man with his boots for whatever reason refuses.

I'm of the opinion that if you leave people alone and people respect each other then it's fine. People will pick up the slack if things become necessary. I think the conflict is based on prejudice and erroneous thinking.

Now... having sexual desire for children or animals is different because children and animals cannot sexually consent the way that the golden gate bridge can or an adult can. It needs to be watched by law enforcement. I actually feel sorry for people who have sexual desire for these kinds of things. I think that many of them grew up with it or they were born with it. There's no doubt they're wrong in exercising their sexual desires, but at the same time, it's a travesty that it happens this way. It's a real test for our government and people.

[Estu]

Originally Posted by stormlord [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think people mix up sexual gratification with love too much. They're different. A person can love anything, even immaterial objects (like god or fictional characters). Similarly, people can have a sexual desire for all manner of things. When the two come together, people often mistakenly associate them as one thing.

I think the issue is that the word 'love' is used for a variety of separate feelings. I think 'romantic love' is definitely its own thing and is definitely affected by sexual orientation.

[stormlord]

Originally Posted by Estu [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think the issue is that the word 'love' is used for a variety of separate feelings. I think 'romantic love' is definitely its own thing and is definitely affected by sexual orientation.

You must be talking about infatuation.

You know my brother says that love for a woman is spiritual. He says "beautiful" does not describe it. He said it's indefinable. But you know I can say the same thing about love for god. Or love for the universe. The fact that it's indefinable to him tells me that his thoughts about it are about as good as if he told me the earth was flat. How can you have a reliable opinion about something that's indefinable?????

I'm not convinced that love for a woman is a special love. It might be a flavor of love, but it's still love. There could be some love's that're more survivable than others, though. For example, if I loved knives, I might get cut one too many times. On the other hand, some woman are supposed to cut both ways...

Infatuation is kind of idealistic too. Now that I think about it. But all love is an idea.

When I was growing up I had infatuation a couple times. But I can assure you that it's mostly superficial. Deeper love happens when the object of your infatuation loses its luster. If you like a gentle curve then it's no longer gentle. If you like a mark here and a mark there then the marks aren't there anymore. If you like a square in the middle then there's a circle in its place. If you're attracted to woman and you can be infatuated with an old plum wobbly on her legs in her advanced age then you have found love my friend.

As you grow old, you increasingly discover that everything you worked so hard for is slowly taken away from you. And people and things you love pass on. It's hard to accept, but it happens to everyone. You're forced to dig deeper for purpose and meaning. Nature urges us to keep one foot in front of the other.

A love for the universe is bittersweet, as you must account for everything, good and bad. So I think love is an idea. But deep love is not just an idea, it's a lot of ideas in one place. It's complex.

Love is like wine. The longer it sits, the deeper its taste. Well, somewhat. Love is deeper with time.

[Shannacore]

Is Estu trying to come out of the closet on the P99 boards??

[Diggles]

think you know you're gay when you stick ur dick in a man bro

[Pico]

the way i usually test is by touching a penis (not mine). if mine moves then i may be gay, altho discrepancy can present itself depending on splenda intake

[Danyelle]

Originally Posted by Diggles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

think you know you're gay when you stick ur dick in a man bro

[MrSparkle001]

I always wondered, if you're hot, like extremely hot - the hottest person in the world - and you're gay, and you look in a mirror, can you be attracted to yourself?

[Danyelle]

I would