I think children can identify as LGBT. I knew I liked girls since I was little. Age doesn't matter, sometimes you just know.

Can kids be straight at age 12? Hell yes. Why would being gay be any different??

dont know

I think they can. I think they might also be wrong. But I do think some will actually know.

I think they can

Children can be gay. Nobody questions that heterosexual children can be attracted to each other at a young age.

I think it's easier to know if you're gay than bi.

I didn't know I was gay at a young age, but I find it funny now that I only like androgynous or feminine boys. I do think it's totally possible for kids to be gay or bi.

It is absolutely possible that they know. Some might not. Sexuality is fluid and changes for individuals over time. Some people know from the get go, some people realize further on down the road. I honestly found this whole question and several of the remarks offensive. Why is it always questioned if the non-hetero kids have the ability to understand and claim their sexuality (and even their gender identity)? Why are kids who come out as bi/pan/etc seen as 'posers' or just joining for this 'fad' that you all think exists unless, in your mind, they validate that label by having physical intimate action every type of person they say they are attracted to.

How about we question the straight kids if they are just going through a phase? Why don't they have to come out? How do they know if they are straight? Maybe they just haven't had the right gay experience yet. Why isn't it "experimenting" when they engage in hetero relationships at a young age?

Fuck hetero-normativity

I don't think they'd know as children

I definitely think that some people know who they are very early. My partner knew that they were "gay" (not exactly the term they would settle on now)from childhood.
I knew at 15. Sometimes 15 felt awful late, though I know it isn't.

Is there even any doubt that kids can know, much earlier than puberty?

It can be confusing for some of us, though. At puberty, almost all of my fantasies and desires were about girls, so I figured I was straight and that my few fantasies/desires about boys (well, just one boy actually) were flukes or something.

Then, after my first sexual experience, giving a blowjob to my best friend (the one boy I fantasized about) at 16 (and LOVING it), I figured I must be gay. But less than 3 months after that, I hooked up with a girl for the first time and...

It took me several more years to accept that I could like sex with a guy and sex with women and just be...who I am, and to be cool with that.

I think kids can know pretty early. I remember having crushes on girls when I was in preschool.

I had crushes on girls at an early age. I didn't realize it was was it was because I didn't know it was possible. I'd only seen hetero relationships. My parents hadn't taught me being gay was wrong, I just didn't know it existed until I was a bit older.

I've known since about grade three that I liked girls, but I never thought twice about it. It wasn't until I was a bit older that I was made aware that girls liking girls was "different."

Sexual attraction is different than childhood crushes. While young kids may not be sexually aware and haven't gone through puberty, that doesn't mean that they can't find someone pretty or attractive. We grow up watching adults. We see them kiss and hold hands. We can want that with someone even at a young age. I have seen 6 year olds want to hold hands with boys or girls. And especially at 11. I was going to school dances and gossiping over boy bands. I knew by then that I was definitely heterosexual. I knew when I was 6 and had crushes on my older siblings friends. It wasn't sexual, it was just me blushing and wanting to hang out with them and give them high fives.

Yes, children can definitely know. They may not know the term for it early on but they will know.

I remember that movie. I thought it was cute..
I definately believe some kids can just know at quite a young age. Especially around middle school when kids these days are dating and having sex already, you can tell who you're attracted to.

I knew I liked women around around age 12. I'm 22 and still do. So, yes.

I knew I liked other girls starting when I was 11, and frankly, there were a ton of indications before that. It was around that age that I figured out what those feelings meant. I told myself it was just a phase, and later, I told myself that I was just bisexual. When I was sixteen, I finally accepted that I was gay. Two years later at age 18, I'm fully out of the closet and pretty happy with my life. So, I came out very young.

I was attracted to both sexes at at 7.

I started experiencing sexual attraction at a very young age (around 6) and only at 15 I became attracted to men as well (had my god damned periods at 11 3/4 )
For some people it can be unrelated to puberty, and you should believe what the person tells you because they're the one who live with themselves, in their body, experiencing their live.
Now, if they're 12, then they'll probably be experiencing puberty soon, and I know a woman who started being attracted to women at 10 and had her periods at 12, but in fact your puberty begins before your periods and before you ejaculate for the first time, preparing your body to it, so I can't really say when she started her puberty from that and say she experienced attraction before her puberty. I still guess a number or people experience attraction younger, maybe not as young as me.
Though to be honest, around 13 I was attracted to one man on TV for a short time. He contracted his pecs and it did that to me. But I dismissed it as it never happened before. Also I masturbate less than as a child, but I'm attracted to more people now even without the addition of men to my attractionary.