The boy's behavior in the case above could be labeled as bisexual since he "exchanged caresses with one boy and four girls." Actually, during late childhood and early adolescence, sexual play with members of the same sex is probably more common than with members of the opposite sex. (Comfort, 1963, p. 42). Homosexual sex play in childhood involves handling the genitals of a person of the same sex, primarily, as in the case above.
In a smaller number of cases it also involves oral
or anal contact and occasionally urethral or vaginal insertions. (Broderick,
1966). Sometimes homosexual activity takes the form of "show it"
such as a group of boys urinating together outdoors.
For example, a
mother reports that she saw two boys giggling excitedly while having a
contest to see which one could "wee-wee" the farthest. (Sears, Maccoby,
and Levin, 1957, p. 205).
The activity is mildly competitive and
perhaps low in erotic intent or satisfaction. The following case of homosexual
play of females, on the other hand, is explicitly genital and
erotic.
I (a girl) encountered a sexual experience that
was confusing at kindergarten age.... Some
afternoons we would meet and lock ourselves in a
bedroom and take our pants off. We took turns
lying on the bed and put pennies, marbles, etc.
between our labia.
The other two liked to pretend
they were boys and used a pencil for a
penis. As the ritual became old hat, it passed
out of existence. I enjoyed the sexual manipulation,
for it was stimulating. Yet, I never
wanted to pretend that I had a penis.
The following case is homosexual in that it involves two girls
rather than one child of each sex, but the activity is only mildly sex
ual. The emphasis is on imitation of the friendship-companionship as
pect of adult heterosexual relationships.
For some reason we found that we enjoyed our
friendship better than those we had with members
of the opposite sex.
From the time we met, up
until about the time of fifth grade, she and I
played a game which we enjoyed very much.
We could
see older couples holding hands, lying on the
beach, swimming, picnicking, etc., and then we
would proceed to imitate their actions with each
other.
She would always play the boy's role and I
the girl's. There was nothing physical about our
actions other than a caress here or there. This
game played a significant part in our friendship,
and seemed to provide us with security.
Children sometimes utilize homosexual fantasy as a part of the fan
tasized milieu for an autoerotic act, such as masturbating. In such a
case masturbation in a very real sense becomes a homosexual rather than
an autoerotic act.
The following case involves homosexual activity be
tween a boy and an imaginary partner of the same sex who is brought
into the "encounter" mentally both through pictures and through imag
ery.
Visual stimulation, from magazine pictures or
television, began to occur frequently at age
six.
This period, lasting from age six to
twelve, was one of predominant homosexual stimulation.
A marked period of homosexual responses,
to both visual and mental imagery, is a major
part of my early childhood.
Beyond the age of
twelve, when I entered the seventh grade, homosexual
response declined while heterosexual
stimulation increased.