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The word acceptance refers to a favorable reception, approval, favor and endorsement. It also means the fact or state of being accepted, or act of believing or assenting. Self-acceptance and social acceptance are two essential stages of adolescence. Adolescents adjustment and wellbeing are associated with the interpersonal acceptance and rejection they experience from their social environment. One of key factors in adolescences environment involves the degree of acceptance provided by parents. Accepting, warm parents tend to provide appropriate reaction on gay, lesbian, or bisexual adolescences sexual orientation. In a developmental stage acceptance by peers and integration into peer networks becomes increasingly important. Family support and knowledge have an impact on psychological adjustment and on gay identity formation. Research says, that acceptance of gay, lesbian, or bisexual adolescences sexual orientation in a family context has a fundamental impact on their health. Historian Heather Murray in Not in This Family: Gays and the Meaning of Kinship in Postwar North America challenges the myth that gay men and women were more often not accepted by their disapproving parents throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. He shows how kinship family relations have been a stimulating force in gay culture, politics, perception, and awareness. Beginning in the late 1940s and 1950s, Not in This Family covers the entire postwar period, containing the gay liberation and lesbian feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the establishment of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. Ending her story with an examination of contemporary "coming out" rituals, Murray demonstrates how the personal that was once isolated became political, and finally public. The changing character of gay culture and politics created an environment

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in which chances for private life were limited. Dynamic and liberal-minded political and cultural growths, new expressive perspectives, emphasis on the importance of the personal within the colossal variety of emancipation movements, readiness to voice an opinion and question about political causes and wars openly, the openness and search for new directions in the arts were the sources of the changing in an intimate mores within middle-class family life. Another dominant cause of the changing meaning placed on empathy and disclosure of ones private feelings was also solely the inner inquisitiveness of postwar families, mainly in those where the children were gay (194195). Exploring the private and mutual relationships of gay children and their parents, social movements, and psychological manners, Murray explains what roles play personal will, public disclosure, and family attachments in transforming the modern family. Linda Garnets and Kimmel C. Douglas in Psychological Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Experiences say that close and fulfilling relationships with parents may be a reason for youth to disclose his or her sexual orientation to them. There is also equal possibility of another reason. Parent-child relationships can become fulfilling because of disclosure. A third possibility is that childs revelation and psychological well-being are associated with a third factor. Youths may be psychologically healthy because they grew up in a family that admired to know a true about every family members nature and provided appropriate reaction to disclosing ones direction of an emotional and erotic attraction (312). According to Savin-Williams parents are frequently a forceful and convincing factor in gay youths development of dignity and regard. They also have a fundamental impact on their childrens developing and adapting of sexual identity, which include both sexual orientation and sexual characteristics. Parental

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response affects the most valuable and unstable factors of youths feeling natural with their sexuality and ability to open it to others (312). Director of the MSW program and associate professor at the School of Social Work at Rutgers University Michael C. LaSala pointed out that according to some psychologists many gays and lesbians expect parental positive reaction toward their sexual orientation and hope that disclosure will create close and honest relationships with their parents (Family Therapy for Coming-Out Crisis 68). Marvin R. Goldfried and Anita P. Goldfried in The Importance of Parental Support in the Lives of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Individuals convey that it is a process that requires time and improving patience as well as a complete rearrangement of ones expectations and values eliminating prejudices. If disclosure has finally come, parents and other family members can make the next step of distributing this frankness with close friends, which also involves a socialization process. In order to obtain a help in this level of disclosure it is relevant to involve in PFLAG and other organizations related to promoting health of LGBT persons and actively supporting their families and friends. Having achieved an optimistic and progressive self-identification, the family members need to manage their feeling of blame and antipathy over the fact of their relatives homosexual orientation and accept this situation the way it is. This is essential experience for the whole family because it involves a number of actions and hopeful feelings, which can eventually be well thought-out and controlled for further integration into their understanding of themselves and alteration of their attitudes (688). Disclosure although enhances a gay, lesbian or bisexual youths self-esteem by increasing adolescences confidentiality of their conformity in society. Borhek suggested that if the reaction of parents is appropriate and positive and parents support their

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children after disclosure, coming out to parents strengthens a youths confidence in their normality, self-satisfaction and esteem (Garnets 311). The Brown University Child and Adolescent and Behavior Letter (Come Out of the Closet) affirms the importance of acceptance and understanding a childs sexuality for parents. It is fundamental to acknowledge that homosexuality and bisexuality are not a phase and develop at a fairly early age. Some people may experience with their sexuality some time, but those who attain the point of coming-out to parents is not usually going through a temporary phase of his or her life. Generally, parental positive reaction is important for youths sense of self-worth as they have had long and difficult time to understand and accept their own sexual orientation (1). Some of parents although believe that their parenting must be the reason of their childs sexual identity. According to contemporary theories of homosexuality within psychiatry and psychology gay people come from all types of families and there are no general patterns of a genetic or biological basis (1). Once sexual orientation is established whether heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual, it is highly resistant to change. It is a mistake to assume that homosexual have deliberately chosen their sexual orientation and it is significant for parents to come through that difficult realization and recognition. LaSala concluded that despite all of the difficulties of coming-out, surveys suggest that 60-70% of gays and lesbians decide to disclose to their parent (Family Therapy for the Coming-Out 68) and many of those achieve positive reaction which stimulate their mental health (Parental Influence, Safer Sex 49). It is considered psychologically healthy for lesbians and gay men to come out and live outside of the closet, says Michael C. LaSala. However, parents tend to react with shock, disappointment, and shame when they learn of a sons or daughters gay

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sexual orientation. Disclosure often precipitates a painful family crisis, which can lead to cutoffs between members (Family Therapy for the Coming-Out Crisis 67). Taking in account societal hostility toward lesbian and gay people, it does not cause amazement that families react negatively to the news of childs homosexual orientation. As a result of adversative parental replies, childs mental health becomes at risk of psychological disorders (68). According to some psychologists parental ignorance or condemnation has an argumentative effect on lesbian, gay men, and their relationships. Some gay and lesbian adolescents avoid durable relationships. They fear that such connection would make it more problematic to obscure their sexual orientation from their parents. Others may separate themselves from their parents in order to hide their sexual orientation (69). For some youths, parents are among the last to discover their childrens homoerotic attractions. Adolescents desire to avoid being involved in family conflict by verbal or physical assault or parental emotional disappointment is the most common reason. Relatively a small number of gay youth believe that they would experience difficulties and would have to suffer for the truth (Garnets 305). Professor of clinical psychology Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus et al admit that restrained disclosure of sexual orientation may be a tool for protection for gay youth from tremendous parental attitudes, but it may also produce a destroyed and hopeless cleavage in the parent-child relationship. Not disclosing to parents can cause grater possibility of stressful situations than disclosing in lives of lesbian, bisexual, and gay youths (306). When the physical and emotional insecurity appears because of disclosure, there is only fecund way to substitute parent-child relationships for youth. They may start misrepresent their personal emotions, or lye and mistrust their parents. The other permissible situation is that "family crisis"

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may not be as dangerous and exceedingly large as it was expected, must also be intently and passionately viewed in order to make a right decision when discussing the consequences of disclosing that involves opposing viewpoints (305). Parents are frequently a forceful and convincing factor in gay youths development of dignity and regard. They although have a fundamental impact on their childrens developing and adapting of sexual identity, that includes both sexual orientation and sexual characteristics. Parental response affects the most valuable and unstable factors of youths' feeling natural with their sexuality and ability to open it to others (312). Family support significantly increases the psychological stress and symptoms causing the victimization experienced by gay youths. It declines adolescents personal self-acceptance. The less self-acceptance results in the extremely high possibility of psychological difficulties. This finding has a big number of evidence demonstrating that pessimistic and negative self-image among people usually is associated with many psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, and low level of functioning (Goldfried 683). Amanda L. Thompson et al explain some of the reasons of the higher risk for substance use and abuse among LGB youth compered to heterosexual in Individual Trajectories of Substance Use in Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth and Heterosexual Youth. Several decades of research and minority stress theory suggest that differences exist due to incidents of discrimination, victimization and harassment that are persistent and widespread due to extensive and accepted homophobic culture (976). The results of the study reviewed by Thompson showed that fairly early in life a noteworthy proportion of LGB youth are on high risk of substance use and its trajectory

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increases in young adulthood and are abnormally different from the trajectories of heterosexual youth (979). Parental acceptance or rejection can be crucial for LGB youths lives, causing greater possibility of adolescences humiliation, physical assault and death. Doctor of philosophy in Boston College Susan Saltzburg in Learning That an Adolescent Child Is Gay or Lesbian: The Parent Experience admitted that gay and lesbian youths recount stories of ejection from home, emotional rejection, and family violence as a result of parents discovering of their sexual orientation. Cut-offs between parents and child locates young person at high risk of social separation, depression, and suicide. Leigh Combs in Hazards Of Stigma: The Sexual and Physical Abuse Of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Adolescents In The United States And Canada conveys the fearful, nervous, angry, and even violent responses LGB youth experience from their families, at school, and in the community, which was documented by some studies from the U.S and Canada. Some families are influenced by the labeling and criticizing attitudes in their social and cultural environments and react with violent opposition, punishment, and desperate physical or mental suffering (197). In their study of victimization among LGB college students, Waldo and colleagues find the evidence of another reason that produces violent behavior toward LGB youths. They discover that those who had come-out to uncaring families were not the only more likely to experience victimization. Gay, lesbian and bisexual persons have been correlated with those who have higher gender atypicality. Waldo and colleagues suggest that gender-atypical youth which is often assumed as gay, lesbian, or bisexual is not protected from victimization by their families and may even become a victims because of perpetration the violence by family members (198).

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Extensive surveys have shown warning rates of high-risk sexual behavior and HIV infection among gay youth. Investigators have recognized important factors that are responsible for incidents of unprotected and dangerous sexual behavior. LaSala in his reviewing of the research project of National Institute of Mental Health emphasizes the family as a factor of HIV prevention for this population. He states that family support, monitoring, and communication are associated with smaller amount of reported incidents of intercourse without condoms (Parental Influence, Safer Sex 49). He also focuses on the parental concern of HIV risk of the gay youth. Thirty gay male and thirty five lesbian youth with their parents were questioned about their attitudes toward the parents finding of a childs sexual orientation This interview showed the impact that family attachments have on youth and parent mental health and family relationships (50). Thirteen of the youths described no family influence on their choices whether or not to avoid risky sexual contacts. Parents of those youths had their own histories of personal problems such as rejection, marital problems, mental illness, or substance abuse. These problems interrupted parent-child relationships and caused childs separation from his or her parents. It is possible that such disorders delayed young adults ability to join into close relationships with their parents and that is why they claimed there was no impact on their personal life. It was concluded that adolescents at higher risks of HIV infection were from families with current and continuing difficulties. It could be assumed that adolescents who were unbiased by their parents had miserable connection and their parents had been absent-minded due to their own problems. That is why parents did not have opportunity to effectively participate in their childrens development of security. However, this assumption is very hypothetical as the youths attachment intensities were

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not evaluated in this investigative research. The reports of one family suggest how, through intimate monitoring, parents even with experiences of uneasy connections with their children can still encourage them to engage in safer sex (53-54). Parents are also undergoing the series of difficulties revealed in their private life and there is diminutive study exploring the parents position of adolescent disclosure (Saltzburg 109). Seventeen youths reported that their relationships with their parents influenced their decisions to avoid unprotected sexual contacts and the most common explanation of parental impact focused on the adolescents feeling of obligation to his or her parents to stay healthy. For most of the youths, parental advises were not as crucial as feeling of obligation in their decision-making. Individuals who recognize their sexuality while acknowledging their responsibility to their parents are possibly balancing their desire for sexual relationships with worries for their parents emotional state. This equilibrium is theoretically an indication of connection and autonomy that is evidence of reached maturity as articulated by the developmental and family theorists. Feeling of obligation and responsibility as the consequence might have an important influence in prevention of other types of risky behaviors. For instance, youths who have a potentially risky behavior including developmentally appropriate activities but who are careful due to their feeling of obligation to their parents to stay secure might be demonstrating a normal stability of autonomy and connection (Parental Influence, Safer Sex 53-54). Parents are frequently a forceful and convincing factor in gay youths development of dignity and regard. They also have a fundamental impact on their childrens developing and adapting of sexual identity, which include both sexual orientation and sexual characteristics. Parental response affects the most valuable and

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unstable factors of youths feeling natural with their sexuality and ability to open it to others (Garnets 312). The presence or absence of parental support can have key influence on gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. This factor significantly moderates psychological stress and symptoms resulting from victimization experienced by gay youth (Goldfried 683). Providing open and powerful support from gay youths own family members may advance a kind of indirect contact with and exposure to LGBs. It is exceptionally significant in that such disclosure or connection has been found an important factor in societys positive attitudes toward LGB individuals (691). As observed by Bernstein: Most people, perhaps an overwhelming majority, are not cut out for activism. But parents of gay children, it seems to me, can't help but harbor at least a degree of righteous anger at those who would diminish their children. My hope is that the anger will someday surface, that the now-silent masses will stand up and make themselves heard. (qtd. in Goldfried 690) Exceptionally important topic in the field of gay youths security and health is nursing care as they are at the highest risk of psychological disorders, substance use, victimization, and HIV. Scott Weber in Guest Editorial: Special Issue on Mental Health Nursing Care of LGBT Adolescents and Young Adults emphasizes several specific concerns in treatment interventions and delicate process of coming-out. Initially, it implicates acceptance of ones sexual orientation, including struggling with consequences for family and peers. Secondly, it requires personalize life-planning steps. Finally, there should be assurance in school and community-based safety, security, and welfare. Coming out is the process that requires time and patience for struggling against difficult

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consequences of exposure of ones own identity, which make take month, years, or a lifetime (1).

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Works Cited Combs, Leigh. "Hazards of Stigma: the Sexual and Physical Abuse of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Adolescents in the United States and Canada." Child Welfare 85.2 (2006): 195-213. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. Dictionary.com | Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://dictionary.reference.com/>. "Did Your Child Recently Come Out of the Closet?" The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter 26.S12 (2010): I-II. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. Garnets, Linda, and Douglas C. Kimmel. Psychological Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Experiences. New York: Columbia UP, 2003. Print. Goldfried, Marvin R., and Anita P. Goldfried. "The Importance of Parental Support in the Lives of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Individuals." Journal of Clinical Psychology 57.5 (2001): 681-93. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. LaSala, Michael C. "Lesbians, Gay Men, and Their Parents: Family Therapy for the Coming-Out Crisis*." Family Process 39.1 (2000): 67-81. Psychology Module, Proquest. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. LaSala, Michael C. "Parental Influence, Gay Youth, and Safer Sex." Health & Social Work 32.1 (2000): 49-55. Health Module, ProQuest. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. Murray, Heather A. A. Not in This Family: Gays and the Meaning of Kinship in Postwar North America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2010. Print.

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Saltzburg, Susan. "Learning That an Adolescent Child Is Gay or Lesbian: the Parent Experience." Social Work 49.1 (2004): 108-18. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. Thompson, Amanda L. "Individual Trajectories of Substance Use in Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth and Heterosexual Youth." Addicton 104.6 (2009): 974-81. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. Weber, Scott. "Guest Editorial: Special Issue on Mental Health Nursing Care of LGBT Adolescents and Young Adults." Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing 23.1 (2010): 1-2. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2011.