How to Cope When You're Gay and Lonely | GQ

Contents:

• HOW TO COPE WHEN YOU'RE GAY AND LONELY
• GAY, MIDDLE-AGED, AND LONELY AS HELL
• IS LONELS THE GAY MAN’S CURSE, OR A PRODUCT OF 21ST CENTURY LIFE?
• ON BEG OLR, GAY, SGLE, MALE AND LONELY: PART 2

HOW TO COPE WHEN YOU'RE GAY AND LONELY

Part of realizg you're gay, or bi, or trans, or non-bary, or anythg other than cisgenr and heterosexual is acceptg you’re different—and somewhat separated—om the majory. Here he shar his journey to overe the sense of isolatn he felt growg up gay a small U.

At the time, there were no real gay role mols except for Graham Norton and Jack om Dawson's Creek—and I certaly didn't intify wh him bee I wasn't a football player. I felt like I was pletely on my rried on until I was 16, when I started gog out to gay bars my hometown.

I ma one gay iend, who I'm actually close to now. For the first time I've been able to form a good group of gay iends and create my own support work.

GAY, MIDDLE-AGED, AND LONELY AS HELL

I'd go on gay chatrooms but that was jt a facels nversatn wh someone who uld have been anyone. I thk if I'd had iends who were gay when I was growg up, my life would have been so different. I now know there were other kids at my school who were gay, but they didn't e out till much later.

IS LONELS THE GAY MAN’S CURSE, OR A PRODUCT OF 21ST CENTURY LIFE?

The Epimic ofGay Lonels. Only a few of the nam of the gay men this article are real.

Jeremy[1] is not my only gay iend who’s stgglg.

ON BEG OLR, GAY, SGLE, MALE AND LONELY: PART 2

For years I’ve noticed the divergence between my straight iends and my gay iends.

“And told me two sentenc later that she knew I was gay.

My parents still claim that they had no ia I was gay. In our lifetime, the gay muny has ma more progrs on legal and social acceptance than any other mographic group history. As recently as my own adolcence, gay marriage was a distant aspiratn, somethg newspapers still put sre quot.