I am looking for help in supporting my son who has only recently come out as being gay at his all boys school.  I didn't know anything about this until he burst into floods of tears when I picked him up from school last week saying that other students were teasing him for being gay and that he is in fact gay and had confirmed this to his schoolfriends who had been questioning him about his sexuality.  Apparently the kids he told were fine with it but then word got out to other students who had been making unkind remarks.    The day I picked him up from school, he had been involved in a physical altercation in the locker room which he assumed was to do with his sexuality.  This all happened  only a day before  he has due to go on school camp.  Fortunately camp departure was delayed because of the bad weather and we had a chance to get onto the school and tell them what was going on.  they were very good, ie, escalated the locker room incident right up the chain immediately, took action in relation to the alleged perpetrator and provided support to my son.    As it turned out, the incident in the locker room was actually a misunderstanding (we think), ie, kid came up to my son first thing the next day and apologised and said it was because my son had deliberately knocked his drink bottle (something son had neglected to mention to us) and he had lost his temper over that. This was before anyone from the school had spoken to the boy so I do think it was a genuine apology and explanation.    I am still terribly worried about my son.  he is very small for his age and only new at this school.  He did get a cop a bit of name calling at his old school which, while on the surface, seemed much more gay positive, was actually pretty pathetic at taking any action when issues did arise.   he is now saying he wants to return to his old school where he felt more comfortable being himself, particularly with the girls.  We are keen for him to stay where he is though as we think they have much better support mechanisms in place, both for his mental health and for his learning.    I would like to help him find some other areas in which he can feel free to be himself though, eg, a support group or some kind of shared activitiy with other gay teenagers so he doesn't feel so alone.  I do have gay adult friends who are keen to shower him with support and encouragement but think he probably needs people closer to his own age.  ... View more