The Gay Farmer Helple is helpg to break silence on gay people farmg. We speak to founr Keh Inon about how he is helpg gay farmers.
Contents:
- THE PRIT GIVG AN OUTLET TO GAY FARMERS NORTHERN IRELAND WHO FEEL UNABLE TO E OUT
- MEET THE CHAPLA WHO HAS SET UP HOME WH HIS EX-RUC OFFICER HBAND CO DOWN... AND NS A HELPLE FOR NORTHERN IRELAND'S GAY FARMERS
- GAY FARMER HELPLE
- MENTAL HEALTH ISSU ARE RISG AMONG GAY FARMERS — BUT ONE MAN IS MAKG A REAL DIFFERENCE
THE PRIT GIVG AN OUTLET TO GAY FARMERS NORTHERN IRELAND WHO FEEL UNABLE TO E OUT
"Very often I am the first person they ever tell that they are gay and they are their fifti. Now what has that done to their mental health for the past 50 years? Bee they have known om when they were their early teens." * gay farmers northern ireland *
Dpe his helple havg been operatn for over six years, Canon Keh Inon says he still receiv a new se every week of a gay farmer or farm worker seekg help wh their silence over their sexualy. The prit timat there are around 800 gay farmers Northern Ireland and is worried that a large number of them are experiencg mental health issu bee they have never openly spoken about their sexualy.
MEET THE CHAPLA WHO HAS SET UP HOME WH HIS EX-RUC OFFICER HBAND CO DOWN... AND NS A HELPLE FOR NORTHERN IRELAND'S GAY FARMERS
After a lifetime of sufferg silence, Canon Keh Inon fally me out of the closet when he was his 50s. The 68-year-old founr of the award-wng Gay Farmer Helple - the first of s kd the UK - adms he was terrified when he told his mum he was gay. * gay farmers northern ireland *
Canon Inon says the helple giv men the farmg world someone to talk to, and that “very often I am the first person they ever tell that they are gay and they are their fifti”.
‘You don’t hear about gay farmers’A lifelong Christian, Canon Inon me to fah via the Salvatn Army. He me out as a gay man around ne years Inon started the agricultural chaplacy team his native Chhire around 16 years ago. It began on a voluntary part time basis and has grown to prise 16 chaplas workg throughout the unty, a fundraisg group and a support group for farmers – around 40 people the team n by ‘Church Together Chhire’ verg all explaed how the helple began: “About six or seven years ago I worked wh a uple of gay farmers and sudnly h me that you don’t hear about gay farmers – they don’t exist.
‘I thought was gog to take months to get gog – but didn’t’“So I did some homework and I went to the Office of Natnal Statistics basilly to fd out how many gay farmers there were likely to be Chhire alone. I end up wh a figure of about 300 gay farmers or farm workers. “I have done the same lculatns for Northern Ireland so if we work that through there are about 800 gay farmers or farm workers.
GAY FARMER HELPLE
The helple ticked along for a uple of years and then the Methodist Church head office London rang me and said the church has had such a bad prs about gay issu ’s about time we put right.
Farmg is top of the suici league and mental health problems are rife and one four gay men will attempt suici at some stage of their liv, so if you put the suici problems the farmg dtry wh the gay life as well you’ve got a real recipe for disaster. “Wh the helple they have got somebody to talk to and very often I am the first person they ever tell that they are gay and they are their fifti. ”He says that a lot of s the fai do not spect the farmer is gay; “They are not Larry Grayson typ, they are normal workg farmers and of urse the farmg muny you have a very good exce for not gettg married if you don’t have to, maybe bee you’ve never found the right person or they are too by workg.
Then off urse the police were volved and turned out the fellow was tryg to kill himself bee he was gay and he uldn’t pe wh . And the man said ‘my father said if I had known he was gay I would have left him there to die’.
MENTAL HEALTH ISSU ARE RISG AMONG GAY FARMERS — BUT ONE MAN IS MAKG A REAL DIFFERENCE
Of urse the lad already knew that he himself was gay and he had never admted to anybody. He would have been 50 odd when he told that story and that was the first time he had told anybody that he was gay. ”Lookg for social ntactCanon Inon says that the Northern Ireland farmers who have ntacted him already are lookg for social ntact as they are feelg lonely and isolated, but general they too are olr believ is more difficult for people Northern Ireland to be gay, than their unterparts England.
“I thk there is a world of difference between the ordary person acceptg gay people and the thori – the hardle, official le.
Why women form stronger iendships wh gay men. I’m gay but I have two kids wh an ex-partner and I’m sred of losg them- how n I e out?