My honesty really strengthened our friendships, and their support became an invaluable resource for me for years to come. They all became completely comfortable with it in their eyes it was just part of who I was. Regardless of their initial reaction, all my friends eventually accepted me. I told my friends individually, and their responses varied from confused to unsurprised. I came out to three distinct groups: my friends, my school and lastly, my family. However, my strong feelings on the subject didn’t exactly prepare me for how difficult stepping out of “the closet” into the big, bright world would be or how deeply it would affect me and those around me. I also wasn’t comfortable with lying about who I was or who I loved. I totally rejected the idea that I should hide how I felt, as if it was wrong or horrible. To me, coming out was all about being true to myself. I came out at 16, shortly after I discovered I was gay. What's happened to our girls? We have let Girls Gone Wild and the media culture define them.Coming Out as Gay to Parents: 3 Parents Share Their Experience The Coming Out Process: Coming Out Stories From Gay Teens I didn't know I had so much power."Ī: We failed our girls. I liked hearing them make noises because it made me feel powerful to be able to affect someone in that way. "I began to associate my own personal power with giving a man pleasure. What do the girls get out of it sexually?Ī: I think Heather, 16, explains it best. Q: A lot has been written about rainbow oral sex parties. We are way past that point with blowjobs. Think back to the '80s when girls would blush when talking about their first kiss. The reason they speak about it unflinchingly is because it has become as benign and as acceptable as kissing. The girls were okay talking about giving oral sex to a number of boys – they didn't stumble with the words or appear shy or ashamed. is for the mothers to finally take responsibility for what has happened to their daughters. There is no social group for a mother whose teenage daughter is having sex with five men a night. How?Ī: Getting the releases was not difficult because the parents wanted to talk about this.
Q: You were able to get parental permission to film the girls who were under age. That was the beginning of my research into teenage recruiters and the middle-class girls they target.
I asked the teacher about her and was told that she had been recruited by a girl at school and trafficked to a small town where she was kept in a motel. In that class, I met a lovely blond girl with perfect makeup and a Louis Vuitton bag who seemed completely out of place. The Flex kids have been out of school for various problems. Q: What sparked this documentary and book?Ī: I was at a high school in Burnaby, B.C., researching sexual attitudes for a film I was working on when I was asked to talk to the students in the Flex Program. Parents, she says, were not paying close enough attention to their daughters.Īzam is married, with a 3-year-old daughter, and splits her time between Los Angeles and Vancouver. This includes a prostitution ring at an Edmonton high school. Worlds away from the poverty, neglect and drug abuse that are the hallmarks of prostitution, teenagers who appear bright and well- adjusted are prostituting themselves without batting an eyelash.Īccording to independent filmmaker Sharlene Azam's documentary and book, Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss, the normalization of oral sex as an acceptable teenage activity has led vulnerable girls to use it as a way of becoming socially accepted.įor some in Azam's film, this ultimately leads to payment for sex because, after all, if they are doing it anyway, why not get paid for it?Īzam, 38, a former columnist for the Toronto Star, interviewed Canadian girls (and their parents) who had been discovered by school officials to be involved in sexual activity with groups of boys, as well as girls charged by police. Middle-class Canadian girls are giving oral sex after school to pay for sweaters and handbags.