1. I watched "Little House on the Prairie."

2. I had a crush on the "Six Million Dollar Man" but I wanted to be Jamie Sommers when we played fembots vs. the Bionic Woman.

3. I had a thing for Aquaman.

4. I wanted to help my Mom in the kitchen more than throw the football with my Dad (which I loved to do)!

5. I tape recorded the sound effects of Diana Carter turning into Wonder Woman and spun around with loose clothes, letting them fly off as she became Wonder Woman.

God, how did I ever stay interested in sports, yet hide all that from my friends? Boy, I was so gay as a kid!


SO, HOW SHOULD THEY HAVE KNOWN YOU WERE GAY WHEN YOU WERE A KID?

1. I watched "Little House on the Prairie."

2. I had a crush on my GI Joe.

3. I had a thing for the Lance Kerwin.

4. I had the poster from the "Divine Miss M" album on my bedroom wall. IN JUNIOR HIGH!

5. Tape recorded myself singing "Bohemian Rhapsody."

I didn't embrace the sports nut in me until the mid-90's.

When I told my folks, they were like, "uh, yeah, duh?" My question is: "Why didn't they tell me?"

knew every word to every song Barbra Streisand ever recorded. eek!

I had big crushes on Steve Garvey (who went on to marry a girl I went to high school with), and Bill Buckner.
I used to pour over the Jockey underwear ads.
I had crushes on my male HS teachers.
My favorite movie when I was a kid was "Meet Me In St Louis".

1. Watched with interest, and learned from my mother how to crochet.

2. Watched I Dream Of Jeannie and Bewitched reruns repeatedly after school everyday.

3. Mid/late 80's got hooked on General Hospital mmmmmm....Colton, Frisco, and even Jake LOL

[ January 21, 2006, 04:37 AM: Message edited by: Chill-Trick ]

1) I'd build elaborate homes with my Lincoln Logs (for which my dad was proud) then play house with them with my sister's Barbie dolls (to his horror! LOL. He was cool with it though)

2) At my 8th birthday party I traded one gift (a huge Saturn 5 rocket) that I had received for my neighbor's EasyBake oven;

3) Most telling, I accompanied my dad to work one day (he was a cop), went into the locker room with him and saw someone's jeans on the bench (NOT my dad's!) Some mysterious force compelled me to go over to the pants and start rubbing the crotch. I was 6. Oh My God! Talk about an early start.

1) ...I noticed that the Playgirl magazine I had under my mattress was not in the same position where I had put it.

2) ...I bought the soundtrack to "Can't Stop the Music" and the Original Broadway Cast Recording of "La Cage aux Folles."

I blame it all on my mother-she used to play The Supremes records for me when I was a baby

When I was young, I was obsessed with Shaun Cassidy. When "The Hardy Boys" was on, I would completely ignore everyone else in the house. I begged my mom to buy me the poster where he's standing with his shirt unbuttoned halfway, his head is slightly tilted, and his hair is doing that 70's feathered thing. And she did!

Great topic!!!

As a teenager when I revealed to my oldest brother that I liked Andy Gibb a lot and had to see his performance on American Bandstand one Saturday, that pretty much should've told him I was gay.

[ January 21, 2006, 10:26 AM: Message edited by: amazin12 ]

Oh my God playerten, I was SUCH a Jamie Somers fan. She had the most glamorous life - complete with the hot 240Z and she was a secret agent. Sigh.

Yep, that was one sign.

They also should have known, and it turns out they did know, when I:

1. Was five years old and played at being a girl with my best little nelly friend at swimming lessons

2. Became obsessed with the Village People in junior high, especially the leatherman (that hot moustache - double Sigh)

3. Got caught with an obscene doodle of my very hot Greek health teacher (we're talking total muscle bear here - about 5"9' and 220lbs of pure beef)

4. Stayed up way past my bedtime to watch Gregory Harrison's TV Movie of the Week about male strippers

...I introduced them to my boyfriend.

Yeah, OK, that's not really funny, but it's true. I didn't have very many outward signs, I guess.

I watched the Hardy Boys, yes, but the only show I was really remember being hooked on was Project UFO. And since I can't remember what the two military guys looked like, I doubt it was because of them.

I watched a lot of reruns growing up, too, but between the Jeffersons, Leave It to Beaver and Huckleberry Hound, it's hard to find a common thread.

I had a couple Bee Gees and Donna Summer 45s, but they shared room in the blue checkerboard box with M, Gary Numan, Nick Lowe, and Sniff 'n' the Tears.

When playing with action figures, while the guys grappled over Han Solo and the girls wanted to be Leia, I wanted to be the robots and aliens.

I was a baseball fanatic, and went to several games, but I don't remember having a crush on any player. I'm pretty sure that's the case, because whenever a game was on TV, I'd prefer to listen to it on the radio. I did have a soft spot for the journeymen players who would get into maybe ten games a year. One of my favorites, Joe Strain, ended up teaching business at my high school eight years later (and a thousand miles away).

I should admit that I did think one of the members of Duran Duran was hot, which might have been a huge clue. But since I thought the hot one was Roger, that immediately eliminated me from suspicion. Apparently, John (or Simon) was the hot one, and I was just screwed in the head.

LXN

1. I built a doll house out of cardboard boxes when I was in fifth grade.

2. I was more interested in Broadway show tunes than in football.

3. I watched Wonder Woman and even fashioned a golden lasso belt like hers.

4. All my crushes in high school were on other guys, not girls.

5. I sang in two high school choirs.

6. I managed the football, track and guys' soccer teams - the perfect excuse to linger in the locker room after practice!

Of course, a lot of these tell-tale signs only became obvious as gay indicators when I look back on them now.

LOL! Great thread!

Pour moi:

1. I liked the Flash Gordon serials well enough as a kid, but went out and bought Lizst's "Les Preludes" as soon as I ID'd the music.

2. I refused to attend "Nutcracker" with my family at XMas, but insisted on being taken to "Swan Lake" instead.

3. I turned down repeated invites from girls to attend "turnabouts," even though it was all on their dime.

4. I didn't go to HS the day when I was supposed to give a speech on Lytton Strachey - and the teacher asked me the next day if I knew Strachey was "a homosexual!"

5. The TA in my Dante's "Inferno" seminar in college glared at me and said, "they're in-terrr-est-ing!" when speaking of the sodomites flitting about Hell - and I flinched visibly.

6. The senior partners at my first law firm were startled by my lengthy defense of one of their gay partners whom they'd just ousted.

7. I traded my pair of Dingo boots to a neighbor for his blender.

[ January 22, 2006, 10:36 AM: Message edited by: gmginsfo ]

I forgot about lusting after Mike Webster's HUGE arms poking out of his Steeler's jersey during the 70s....

1) My favorite TV shows were: Bionic Woman, Six Million Dollar Man (sooo had a crush on Lee Majors), Wonder Woman, Little House on the Prairie, I Dream of Jeanie reruns.

2) In 3rd grade I was in complete awe of Mr. Greco. He was young, dark brown hair, beatiful brown eyes, and a full brown bushy beard... ::sigh:: That same year I sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow and the 3rd grade talent show.

3) In kindergarten I always wanted to play 'house'.

4) In 4th grade I made a list of all the boys in my class I wanted to give Valentine's cards to.

5) My sisters would never play with the Barbie Dolls they got, but i LOVED playing with them.

Oh, and then there was the Jim Palmer undwear poster I had in my room. sheesh

[ January 21, 2006, 07:05 PM: Message edited by: softballstud ]

(1) me and my best friend donned dresses in Kindergarden dress up day. They had the dresses, so why not.

(2) the same friend and myself made paper flowers from all the toliet paper, hide them in my Dad's playboy drawer. Recall Dad was not amused.

(3) after getting instruments for 6th grade band we marched up our street playing: me, cornet, him, tuba, playing the only song we knew (or thought we knew) "mary had a little lamb". We needed the practice. Our heads and brass were held high for all the neighborhood to see and hear, our parents phone was ringing off the hook, we entertained the hood, "Aren't they cute?"

(4) being obsessed with the infamous Cowboy that exposed himself (don't think he even played for Cowboys after his exposure), every Sunday, kept wanted to know when Lance was playing as if he would do it on TV and I was going to miss it. Really was too young to even know what he did but knew it was nasty and I wouldn't about to miss the next time.

That was all before junior high, the sun was shining in their eyes, how could they not know..

1.) when I fell down the stairs in a dress and my mom's heels (guess if I was a true queen I would have made a grand entrance, no problem)
2.) when I'd watch old movies with strong female leads with my mom instead of going outside to play
3.)when as a 7 year old I begged to stay up to watch The Judy Garland TV show
4.) when I became obsessed with the Supremes and all my favorite artists were female
5.) when I enjoyed looking at the big store catalogs that were sent out in those days so I could check out what was new in guy's underwear!

1. In the "boys vs. girls" wars at second grade recesses, I sided with the girls.

2. I was upset when dad switched the channel right when Donahue had the Chippendales on.

3. I joined the swim team. wink

4. I spent three of four years of high school band twirling baton.

5. I left my own graduation open house early to watch the performance of "Rent" at the Tony Awards.

Fag!

Just kidding JT..welcome to board

1 – I was four and enjoyed playing with my grandmothers pots and pans in the kitchen.

2 – I spent every single hour at the gym practicing or working out trying to catch the attention of that really hot looking coaching assistant.

3 – I liked listening to Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, and had both their albums.

4 – I liked working out and getting hot and sweaty with a bunch of guys on a football field a lot more than dating girls.

R

I started channel surfing during a commercial break while watching "Pride of the Yankees" for the umpteenth time. I came upon "The Harvey Girls" with Judy Garland, Angela Lansbury, Marjorie Main and Cyd Charisse, and watched the whole movie without ever touching the dial. To this day I feel like I cheated on Gary Cooper.

I would take out my Big Jim camper (anybody remember those?) and I would take off Big Jim's and G.I. Joe's clothes and have them sleep together in the back of the camper every night. I mean, c'mon... I was five years old and was making things happen in that Big Jim camper that made Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist's tent on "Brokeback Mountain" seem rather tame by comparison. ...and we're not born with it ?

The first album I bought was Diana Ross and the Supremes 'Love Child"

The SECOND album I bought was the "Very Best if Peggy Lee".

WHen I would go to the hunting camp with my Dad, I'd stay back and cook, rather than fire a gun

Got VERY upset when I didn't get a hula hoop for my sixth birthday

Got even more upset when I didn't get a skipping rope either

Was caught naked with my cousin in the boathouse at the cottage.

I was really depressed in first grade when my best friend at the time was switched to another class

LOL, Cattledog! But do tell: who was on top???

hmmmm..intersting topic...

1) Played with my aunts (3 years older then me) easy bake oven, more then she did.

2) When in Scouts (cub scouts) I actually arranged a "size contest" and no I did not win.

3) When in high school had to chose a sport to do, I chose swimming because I liked the speedo look on guys, plus I showed some promise in the sport (still like a guy in a speedo and still swim on a masters team)

4) I read National Geographic, for the articles, and not for the pictures of naked women.

5) I read through my Dad's collection of Penthouse, looking for those pictorials that had the guys in it. Oh and flipping through the Forums section for the word BI in it..cause those were the GOOD stories. LOL

[ January 22, 2006, 08:23 PM: Message edited by: rickinto ]

Tiffany and Debbie Gibson ("Lost in Your Eyes") were my favorite singers in junior high.

So embarrassing now...

I had a similar situation in high school. I was absolutely in love with this guy, Phil, in my same grade. The only problem is he didn't even know I existed. So each time the new semester schedule came out I would pray that we were placed in at least one of the same classes.

My prayers were never answered. In 4 years of high school we were in the same class only once. :confused:

[ January 23, 2006, 08:07 AM: Message edited by: amazin12 ]

1. Learned how to bake from my Grandmother. Then got special permission to take cake decorating and pastry classes at a community college while I was a Junior/Senior in High School.

2. Went to Barbizon Modeling School just out of High School. I kept that from my parents for over a year. Don't laugh too hard. I was much smaller then and kept most of my body hair shaved. Talk about GAY. Most of the male participates at Barbizon were sooo gay they floated about 4 inches above the floor. Ha!! I still have my portfolio hidden away some where. What the hell was I thinking!!! I did learn a lot from Barbizon. One very important lesson was how they remove money from your wallet so easily. LOL

3. I was always the "Mother Hen" when us guys went anywhere. I took care of everyone. About 6 of us guys spent one week at the beach during Senior break and I cooked and cleaned the whole time at the beach cottage. I LOVED it. I was in my element.

[ January 23, 2006, 08:46 AM: Message edited by: gadbearr ]

brain fart with the quote and reply button.

[ January 23, 2006, 08:46 AM: Message edited by: gadbearr ]

This thread continues to crack me up! Gadbear, I hear you on the Mother Hen bit; that was me during my own HS swim team, fraternity pledgeship, USNavy bootcamp - they even made me a company commander for it! - law school party host par excellence - one of my profs praised one of my parties the Monday after in civil procedure class! - and even when I'm trying cases now. I think there's a pattern here ...

Rickinto, in the Summer of 1990, I swam at a really nice outdoor 50m pool SE of downtown Tronno that's raised above ground, as I recall. There were a bunch of gay guys there and we got into a Speedo comparison conversation on the deck. Were you one of them???

When I got really excited to watch the Tony Awards w/ my Grandmother every summer it was on.

1) I wanted a Drowsy doll . (and they bought it)

2) I wanted a baton (cousins were majorettes).

This was before age 5.

[ January 23, 2006, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: Ou Sooner 1997 ]

1. I loved Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, She-Ra, and Jem and the Holigrams.

2. I got up at 7 a.m. every morning to watch She-Ra. I had the doll and the poster up on my wall by my bed.

3. I had an Easy Bake oven.

4. I loved Supergirl the movie with Helen Slater, Mannequin with Kim Cattrall, Overboard, Dirty Dancing, and Date with An Angel.

5. I wanted to be a designer or a chef. I played with my mother's boilers at around age 4. At 6, I started designing clothes out of paper for my paper models.

Yeah, I had a really gay childhood. At 9 or 10, I started playing soccer and baseball.

1) I had a ton of high school graduation pictures of girls on my wall, but I told my mom they were all "just friends."

2) I was always "crafty."

3) I wasn't that great with sports but always insisted on wearing a jock strap.

4) I would sit in front of the stereo singing along with Karen Carpenter.

5) When I'd walk by my mom's bridge games, her friends would always say "He's so elegant, like Fred Astaire."

1. My favorite cartoon was Johnny Quest, and I always wanted to be Hajii.

2. My younger sisters and I would sing along to the Partridge Family albums and set up elaborate shows around the songs.

3. I loved the Monkees and Davie Jones was my favorite, just like my girlfriends.

4. My parents would only let me be in chorus if I also agreed to play 8th grade basketball.

5. I would rather play basketball than go out with girls.

1. Hated working on the family ranch and getting dirty.

2. Dated only when I really had to, (i.e. proms and balls) and a general indifference about girls.

3. Spent hours in my room singing along to my Disney Christmas albums.

4. Too many Madonna and Whitney Houston albums in my cassette collection and not any Cinderella, Poison, or Def Leppard albums like all of my friends had.

Post the pix!!!

Yeah Gadsy,
Maybe we can resuscitate that modeling career! wink

I'm keeping to the original intent of this thread, and listing items that should have clued "them" in, not me. Hence, looking over the men's underwear sections of Penney's and Sears catalogs doesn't count, 'cause I always did that in private. wink

1. I had that shirtless poster of Erik Estrada (humm-ana, humm-ana) on my wall... you know, the one where he's in tight jeans, one arm folded under his beautiful, lightly hairy pecs, one arm reaching out to you, with his head slightly tilted and that big smile with those perfect pearly whites. All on a purplish/hint of pink mottled background. Not that I spent much time looking at it, memorizing every detail so that I can recall it over 20 years since I last saw it...

2. When I did an art project that consisted of copying an Erik Estrada photo from some magazine like Teen Beat. You know, one where he was wearing tight jeans, hands shoved into his pockets, and wearing one of those plaid shirts that were popular with the snaps instead of buttons, unsnapped almost down to his navel, and his head tilted forward, and slightly askew.

3. I wanted to watch an episode of "CHiPs" where the previews implied Erik would be shirtless, and my parents wanted to watch something else on the family TV in the living room. So I "convinced" my mother that I wanted to experience TV how a deaf person does, and that I wanted to watch a show with the sound turned down. I never knew what she was thinking, but she was a good sport and let me watch the TV in their bedroom that night. And no, I am not making this up.

4. The fact that I was so freaking obsessed with Erik Estrada...

5. In addition to Erik Estrada, during my "pictures on the wall phase" I had pictures torn from Tiger Beat, et al of Greg Evigan, John Schneider, Leif Garrett (oh, how my tastes have changed), Patrick Duffy, Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson. Just for good measure, I had a couple of token pictures of Kristy McNichol (lesbo) and Kate Jackson (looks like a lipstick lesbo). Apparently I had gaydar before I knew what it was, at least when it came to women.

6. I hated all sports, and thought they were stupid and a waste of time (while secretly lusting after many of my classmates who were jocks). I even got very upset when Sunday football would always run late, and delay the start of "60 Minutes." It wasn't until I went to college that I really got into following certain sports, and gained an appreciation.

7. I loved the Flip Wilson show, even though I was too young to understand most of the humor. I didn't know why at the time, but I was mesmorized watching him. Then again, my family watched almost every variety show (Sonny and Cher, Donny and Marie, Carol Burnett, Lawrence Welk, Hee Haw, etc.) so they probably didn't notice. My favorite performers on Lawrence Welk were the black tap dancer (his name escapes me), and Bobby of Bobby and Sissy fame (and an ex mouseketeer).

8. I ALWAYS cried at the end of the "Wizard of Oz." I both loved and dreaded the annual showing on TV, because I knew I would have to try and hide that I was crying at the end. No other movie made me cry until I was an adult. The minute she said her final, "There's No Place Like Home" I was trying to hide the waterworks. Apparently I was applying early for my FOD card.

9. I never once went on a date with a girl in high school/junior high, yet had a few "sleepovers" with some male friends (nothing happened, unfortunately. OK, well there was this one time... ).

10. During recess, I always played with the girls, until I got a little older. Then I had a couple of male friends and I would go walking around the edge of the parking lot with them just talking, away from the rest of the class. When recess was no longer a factor, I always spent lunch with the girls as well.

11. In elementary school, I always made sure the boys I wanted as "friends" got what I thought were the nicest cards. OK, so maybe no one noticed that but me. I just HOPED they would notice.

11.5 (let's try #11 again... ) In a school where the guys all wore t-shirts and jeans, I wore dress pants (including tweeds), and nice sweaters and shirts. I only owned one pair of jeans (Calvin Klein, of course, with the white label on the right, back pocket with his name, and the inverted loops stitched on the back pockets). I wouldn't allow my mother to wash them in the machine, so that they wouldn't fade (the faded look was only for "cheap" jeans at the time, all designer jeans were that dark blue. They were carefully hand washed or dry cleaned. I also used to make sure they had a crease ironed in them.

12. And to complete the Dirty Dozen... Everyone had a date for the senior prom, except me, even though I planned to go. At the last minute (I don't recall exactly, but probably a week or two beforehand), I finally asked this nice girl from band who I heard didn't have a date. Oh, wait, that's when my mother really DID know... it finally prompted her to ask "the question" and somehow I just blurted out "the answer" and then we had "the talk."

[ January 24, 2006, 05:33 PM: Message edited by: Penn State ]

Heh, some good ones that I share as well

1) Played with my sister's barbies

2) Watched Murder She Wrote with my mother constantly

3) Dated once in high school (my best friend's mom asked him during Christmas if I had a girlfriend. When he said no, she said "he doesn't date much does he? Why is that?") eek!

4) The first CD I ever got was TLC's "Crazy Sexy Cool" and I used to sing along with it all the time. (Still do )

5) I hung out with my female cousins constantly

And yet they still don't know...

Great Post, forced me to think about it...

1) Begged for new shoes to wear to first grade that match the boys I had a crush on (didn't realize it was a crush at the time.
2)played my female cousin's barbies and my GI Joe
3)Helped my grandmother thoughout high school, she worked in the cafateria and I helped after lunch cleaning trays and doing dishes as a cafateria volunteer, still would not change doing this brought her and I much closer
4) band and chorus, played no sports although was always a big fan
5) only 2 dates in high school was the Jr Prom & Sr Prom
6)would put on elaborate variety style shows with 2 girl cousins for our parents, singing, dancing, etc.
7) had mostly female friends in school, although did have a couple male friends, they didn't realize I had a crush on them.
8) loved sharing tents with the hot guys in scouts, would make a very deliberate effort to get to share with the hottest ones
9) would sleep over at a friends house on occasion, he was a jock and cute, at night I would convince him to let me give him a message, this was in JR high


could probably go on if I think of more I'll add them.

But the biggest give away must have been the fact I bought every Manilow album I could

I wanted to play with my brother toy trucks and cars.

I joined choir in jr. high (can't sing) because of the female piano player

wanted to play every sport imagiable

funny thread...

My mom LOVES to tell this story of how for my 5th birthday she took me to the mall and said "here's $10.00 (this was 1971 $10.00 went alot further) you can get WHATEVER you want!" I bought (in my Mom's words) "the cutest matching outfit"!

I think my Mom continues to tell this story as an opening to me telling her I'm gay. wink

My first "crush" that I remember was on, of all men, GLEN CAMPBELL! Maybe he was hot in the 70's or maybe my parents watched a bit too much "Hee Haw" and he was the hottest guy on it.

Ah, yes. I always wanted to be with Race Bannon. What a homoerotic cartoon: One widower (handsome and bearded) and his buff sidekick (Race), and the cute son (Johnny) and his slim, cute Indian friend Haji. There were many an episode where they drew Race w/o his shirt. I never remember a single female character.

[ January 24, 2006, 01:27 PM: Message edited by: Jim at Outsports ]

Were there any female characters?

I guess I'll have to turn the channel to cartoon network and have a look see.

Hell, on that show, even most of the villains were hunks

Race Bannon and Bobby Sherman were my first crushes....who knew.

1. The first song I could completely sing was ABBA's "Take A Chance On Me"

2. I actually knew what Cyndi Lauper was boppin.

3. My career aspiration at age 7 was to be one of Madonna's backup dancers.

4. I choreographed my own routines to some songs at the skating rink.

5. I could outjump the girls in jump rope in elementary school.