This is one of the major problems in how so many approach this whole issue weather as a topic or in deciding a course of action for their own child. Furthermore the possibility of that happiness now rests on either on secrecy and passing or as is more often the case today it rests on the cooperation and orchestration of a comprehensive enough segment of the total people with whom your child is interacting to support this transition. What if we did that for gay kids. How much different would things be if tital 9 applied to all gender nonconforming kids even those who identified as gay? What if 12 states didn't have laws against speaking positively about gay as an identity in schools. What if parents where expected to do the work to insure that a self identified gay student was provided a social network for similarly identified adults and young people. And for just about any teen how might life be different emotionally speaking if we had been chemically castrated during our teen years. What if gay kids had the same wealth of support materials - public discourse etc. The reaason they don't is because we can not deal with their difference and we can not deal with it being about their sexual desire because we are unnerved by a the fact that children can identify and feel and act on sexual interests at a very young age. Gay kids know this and that is a big hurdle to comming out. I wished so much to have a boyfirend then I felt I could come out because it wouldn't mean telling my parents that I think about boys in a sexual way but I love this boy and won't deny him to anyone. No sad to say as was noted when oposition was initially raised amoung APA members over the introduction of GID to the DSM when they stated that it may just be that gay is a normal healthy worthy course of human development that as part of that process involves being in some way emotionally maimed by which they meant that there are certain painfull encounters with being different than ones own parents and most people in your community that gay people by dfinitioon must edure and untill society changes being gay is known to be a bad undesirable thing by children at a tremendously young age. So to be and develop as a person who is homosexual is not going to happen without certain paiuns and obsticles that others can easily avoid and mostly do.