âGay people are worse than paedophilesâ - a woman I went to church with when I was 7/8
âYou know thatâs the gay pride flag youâre drawing, right?â - a classmate seeing me draw a rainbow at age 11 before I knew what gay pride even was
âUgh thatâs gayâ - most people around me who went to my schools/college from ages 7-present(17)
âI agree with civil partnerships but I donât agree with gay marriage because marriage is between a man and a woman to produce childrenâ my religious studies teacher when I was 12
âI donât have a problem with gay people but why do they need to shove it in my faceâ - my mum when I was 12
âI donât mind gay people, itâs bisexuals I have a problem with, just pick, be gay or straight, itâs not a pick and mixâ - my mum when I was 12
âEw youâre a lesbianâ - many people around me, joking, even before I came out
âWell I donât like gay people because of my religion and I think theyâre going to hellâ - a classmate in my religious studies class when I was 15
âAll of these celebrities are just coming out as bisexual for attentionâ - my mum when I was 15/16
People often wonder why itâs difficult for gay/lesbian/bi kids to come out, this is why, itâs not even outright direct homophobic attacks, itâs offhand comments made by straight people because they think youâre one of them meanwhile feeling trapped inside yourself. When you start questioning your sexuality, you start to remember all of those comments made and it terrifies you because it makes you question who you are and what youâll become if you ever do come out and itâs horrible
When youâre told these things by parents/family/teachers/ friends you start to believe these things because why would they lie to you? I believed almost all of those things at one point because thatâs all Iâd been told and it made it 10x harder for me to come to terms with who I was, it meant not even looking at girls for too long in case they thought I wanted them and scoulding myself and getting so angry at myself every time I had any remotely romantic/sexual feelings about a girl, saying things like this make it so much harder for people to accept themselves
Iâve worked so hard for a long time to accept who I am, however Iâd be lying if I said I was completely comfortable with what other people think of me, even after Iâve come out, it still terrifies me to talk about sexuality with my family and friends because Iâm still scared that on some level theyâre not okay with it and I donât know when this feeling will stop or if it ever will
So yeah, I am loud and over the top about my sexuality but thatâs because 1) Iâm so proud of how far Iâve come and the the journey Iâve taken to come to where I am today, accepting who I am 2) Iâm still trying to convince myself that I am Okay with being out and proud and not caring about what others think 3) if other people hear me being out and proud maybe it will make it easier for them when they think about accepting who they are/coming out because theyâll think about the positives
What Iâm trying to say here is, watch what you say especially around younger people who are probably starting to question who they are because what you say can have damaging effects on them and trust me when they start to think about coming out, they will think about every single one of those comments made
gummygunk
2087
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
