When I was 7 or so, I asked my mom why Aunt Mary wasn't married. Mom told me that Mary would want to marry a girl, and I could think of Aunt Mary as being married to her friend.
I have no idea when i actually learned about/understood the concept of homosexuality, but i know that from a very young age, i knew some people were different. There was this guy i went to school with from kindergarten to grade 7 (then his family moved out west) and i knew in grade school that something about him was different. He just didn't act at all like the other guys - would only hang around with girls, etc. We stayed in touch after he moved and when he told me during in high school that he was gay, things clicked.
Mercedes Lackey, in which 45% of the population is Gay.
Heh. Sometime midway through high school I became conscious of the fact that "Gay" and "faggot" were insults about something other than simply being effeminate and not good at sports (these were downright lethal sins where I grew up). Couldn't tell you how I clued in that it was actually about being interested in the same gender.
It was implied that I was when I was in grade seven and eight, but I didn't understand what was meant by that smirky, "Is she your BEST FRIEND?" and neither "lesbian" nor "gay" were ever used to my face. I was a very sheltered child.
I don't remember where I learned the concept. It just made sense to me that some people would like one gender and some might like the other, and I just filed it away as another piece of trivia somewhere in my childhood. Bisexual, transgender/transexual, asexual, metrosexual, whatever-sexual didn't come into my vocabulary until much later, my parents managed to shelter me that much :)
And yes, the first vivid descriptions of sex acts were from novels that seemed pretty unassuming from the outside. I was a voracious reader, and there was no way my parents could have kept up with me even if they'd wanted to. Man, the novels you find at garage sales.. whew! Of course, I still have them all. I think they're still carefully stashed in my old room at my parent's house!
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-09 01:52 pm (UTC)Although for the life of me, I can't remember how I learned about gay people. o.O
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-09 03:00 pm (UTC)Made sense to me!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-09 04:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-09 06:15 pm (UTC)Heh. Sometime midway through high school I became conscious of the fact that "Gay" and "faggot" were insults about something other than simply being effeminate and not good at sports (these were downright lethal sins where I grew up). Couldn't tell you how I clued in that it was actually about being interested in the same gender.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-09 07:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-09 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-09 11:08 pm (UTC)And yes, the first vivid descriptions of sex acts were from novels that seemed pretty unassuming from the outside. I was a voracious reader, and there was no way my parents could have kept up with me even if they'd wanted to. Man, the novels you find at garage sales.. whew!
Of course, I still have them all. I think they're still carefully stashed in my old room at my parent's house!