'The End Of Eddy' Tells Of Growg Up Poor And Gay In Workg-Class France : NPR

Contents:

• GROWG UP GAY THE CARIBBEAN, I WAS NSTANT SURVIVAL MO
• 'THE END OF EDDY' TELLS OF GROWG UP POOR AND GAY IN WORKG-CLASS FRANCE
• GROWG UP GAY THE USSR
• GROWG UP GAY NORTHERN IRELAND
• OLLY ALEXANR: GROWG UP GAY (TV)
• OLLY ALEXANR: GROWG UP GAY

GROWG UP GAY THE CARIBBEAN, I WAS NSTANT SURVIVAL MO

A few days ago I watched a vio of Wentworth Miller, the gay actor, who said that every day growg up was like beg “survival mo”. All of growg up gay the Caribbean are survival mo.

The mic of Jamai which lled for gay people to be murred and burned alive.

Image beg a gay closeted teenager and gog to your first party and hearg the words “shot the batty boy” blarg om the speakers.

'THE END OF EDDY' TELLS OF GROWG UP POOR AND GAY IN WORKG-CLASS FRANCE

You bop your head, ck your hand to the sign of a gun and pot at the guy who is even gayer than you. Growg up this predomantly black society as a gay boy you try to take your spiratns where you n. But where were the gay men who looked like me?

Who uld unrstand that the life of a black gay boy the Caribbean had s own narrative and s own tragedy? In the Caribbean we live our liv through the ey of others – to be gay was bad but to be the parent of a gay son or dghter was worse. You get veiled sympathy and offers of beatg the gay out of him.

Social media has helped young gay men and women the Caribbean to know they are not alone. Amazg advocy groups are creasgly poppg up Barbados, Jamai and Guyana who are mandg that gay men and women have a voice and a right to be treated equally. Read the ments sectn to any article on the topic of homosexualy the Caribbean at your own risk.

GROWG UP GAY THE USSR

Yet Louis' acunt of growg up gay and poor a workg-class village isn't only a story about France. Secretly attracted to boys — wh whom he starts havg sex at a startlgly young age — Eddy's shrieky voice and sway-hipped walk get him intified as gay, although, naturally, nobody lls him anythg so gentle as "gay.

As Eddy wtily puts , they treat his obv gayns as if was some weird art project that he do jt to annoy them. He wr wh artful precisn about everythg om his flounrg attempts to -gay himself by datg girls to the way Airns tracksus brand village guys as lower-class.

GROWG UP GAY NORTHERN IRELAND

Ironilly, what helps Eddy pe is the very thg that gets him abed: his gayns.

Ltle Potato is an tobgraphil short documentary by out filmmaker W Hurley, about a young boy growg up gay the former Soviet Unn. It displays unlikely acceptance and a rare glimpse to gay life outsi the Uned visually stunng film b historil projectns onto youthful bodi.

It was very difficult to be gay growg up the muny I did.

OLLY ALEXANR: GROWG UP GAY (TV)

I was never tegorilly told was wrong to be gay but I also never actually knew what gay was. I didn’t know any gay people unls you unt TV personali like Julian Clary but we never really allowed to watch shows like that. It isn’t that Northern Ireland was at that time an overly homophobic untry.

I am jt not really sure we knew that beg gay was really a thg.

So to grow up so sheltered om any ncept of there beg gay men, gay women or even people of lour to beg to realise you may actually be different is que a sry realisatn.

OLLY ALEXANR: GROWG UP GAY

I didn’t know anybody real life who was openly gay and Irish – wasn’t the way worked.

So beme that I felt I was actually weird and alone and I hontly did feel like the only gay the village. To unrstand the spe and impact of stigma and harassment among lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) youth.

Olly Alexanr: Growg Up Gay.