The age at which young Dutch people come out of the closet continues to fall despite a persistently negative image of homosexuality.

In the past six years, the age at which boys for the first time tell another person about their sexual preference dropped from an average of 17.8 to 16.6. Among girls the average age dropped from 16.3 to 15.9.

These figures were taken from a survey among 8,000 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 conducted by sexual health organisations Rutgers WPF en Soa Aids Nederland. Earlier, a similar survey was conducted in 2005.

However, acceptance of homosexuality among young people remains limited. Nearly all those interviewed had no problems with a girl and a boy kissing in public, but nearly half of the boys and 16 percent of the girls disapproved of two boys kissing in public.

When it’s two girls kissing, 16 percent of the boys disapproved compared to 25 percent of the girls. One in eight boys and three percent of the girls said they would break of a friendship if one of their friends turned out to be gay or Lesbian.

The sexual behaviour of young people has hardly changed at all over the past six years. The age at which they have sex for the first time has remained the same and most young people still say they take adequate precautions to prevent pregnancy.

Of the boys, 87 percent said they used a condom or some other form of birth control when they had sex for the first time. Among girls this percentage was slightly higher at 91 percent. The increase in the number of sexually active young people in secondary education which was apparent in the period from 1995 to 2005 has stabilised.

A new development is that many of those interviewed said that the first time they had sex came as a surprise. Girls are more likely to regret their first time than boys. Just under a third of the girls said they regretted their first time compared to just 16 percent of the boys. More than one-fifth of the girls said they would rather have waited a little longer compared to just 8 percent of the boys.