I’ve intified as gay for years. Not anymore. - The Johns Hopks News-Letter

Contents:

• PEOPLE THK I'M GAY... BUT I'M NOT
• AM I GAY?
• I’VE INTIFIED AS GAY FOR YEARS. NOT ANYMORE.
• MY PARENTS THK I'M GAY BUT I'M NOT
• I LIKE GUYS BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE GAY. HOW DO I STOP BEG GAY?
• HELP! I’M NOT GAY, BUT I DON’T LIKE THE THGS THAT OTHER GUYS MY AGE LIKE.
• WHY DO EVERYONE THK I'M GAY?!

PEOPLE THK I'M GAY... BUT I'M NOT

Gay - While this adjective has historilly scribed men who are attracted to other men, the term now is ed to refer to anyone who experienc romantic, emotnal, or physil attractn to people of the same genr. Sce genr inty and sexual orientatn are separate, transgenr people n intify as straight, gay, lbian, bisexual, etc.

AM I GAY?

Bulli teased me for beg gay when I was younger, but when a six-year-old boy lls another six-year-old boy gay, he means “weird” or “gross, ” not “has sex wh men. Kids are not gay or straight, they’re jt kids.

I wasn’t gay or straight.

Why, then, do adults who knew me as a child sist that I was gay all along?

I’VE INTIFIED AS GAY FOR YEARS. NOT ANYMORE.

I felt prsured to pick a label and stick wh , and for a long time “gay” worked bee I didn’t thk about much. But the last year or two, I’ve started to rethk my relatnship to the label “gay.

I hooked up wh trans and nonbary people and stopped scribg myself as gay, preferrg to e the more clive tchall “queer. Often when I tell some people that I’m distancg myself om gay, they immediately suggt I intify as bisexual, or pansexual. I need somethg that means “mostly gay but not fully mted and open to other possibili, ” but, alas, such a niche label has yet to be imaged.

MY PARENTS THK I'M GAY BUT I'M NOT

When I was six, the boys who teased me labelled me as gay. The adults my life labelled me as gay.

I LIKE GUYS BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE GAY. HOW DO I STOP BEG GAY?

And for a while after g out, “gay” worked fe. I am gay but have never admted this to anyone. My iends probably spect I am gay, but we have never discsed .

Your iends, who might already spect that you’re gay, will get to know you on a eper level and likely feel much closer to you. I like guys but I don’t want to be gay. How do I stop beg gay?

You don’t need to be certa you are gay before talkg to someone or attendg an LGBTQ+ meetg. I am a gay male.

HELP! I’M NOT GAY, BUT I DON’T LIKE THE THGS THAT OTHER GUYS MY AGE LIKE.

I have been out nearly 7 years now (age 16, sophomore year of HS). That week I told my iends and fay I was gay. It is very homogeneo/ hetero-normative and beg a tholic stutn is not the easit environment for queer stunts.

I have been lled gay at school. I don’t feel gay. Bulli often pick on kids who don’t f the social norm at school — kids who aren’t the same race or relign as most people school; who are, or appear to be, lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr; who are “too fat” or “too skny”; who don’t like the same mic as other kids or don’t wear the “right” cloth; or kids who simply appear to be troubled or different some way.

WHY DO EVERYONE THK I'M GAY?!

gay,.