The experience of being gay and young has been seriously neglected in youth culture research and in youth service provision. This stems in part from the pervasiveness of both the heterosexual assumption and the sexual stigma. Since the advent of the gay movement, however, some modest research into gay youth has been conducted and some has been generated through the activity of gay organizations themselves. This paper reviews the experience and problems of being young and gay in Britain as revealed through three research studies. It outlines some key changes that have occurred during the 1980s, especially the emergence of gay youth organizations. It concludes by suggesting the diversity of the gay youth experience in England.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.