ABSTRACT
Queer kids face a unique set of stressful and potentially harmful experiences unlike any faced by heterosexuals. It is important to recognize, however, that the life experiences of these teens are as diverse as those of other adolescents. Most queer kids become well-adjusted lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults. They survive adolescence, as do most teens, and move on with an incredible resilience. Their individual stories are powerful testimony to the trials they have endured. Most become ordinary individuals, remarkable only for their sexual orientation. Sexual behavior and expression are considered rights of adulthood, not prerogatives of youth. In the process of becoming healthy, happy adults, these teens must change their internalized concept of sexual minorities and reverse the heterosexual programming to which they have been exposed. Sexual identity is a consistent, enduring sense of one's own sexuality and of repeated sexual feelings, thoughts, and/or behaviors.
