Contents:
- OVERG THE SHAME OF BEG GAY
- I’M A GAY MAN. HERE’S WHY I DON’T CELEBRATE PRI MONTH
- HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
- WHY I'M NOT PROUD OF BEG GAY
OVERG THE SHAME OF BEG GAY
Bee of society's expectatns that everyone should live a bary world, I envisned that havg a gay child uld be looked upon as a stigma. Acrdg to psychiatrist Jonathan Tobk, -thor of my book, When Your Child Is Gay, "guilt tends to be limed to an actn that we have taken or not taken, whereas shame is a pervasive negative emotn about how we feel overall. Once ashamed of havg a gay son, now Dorothy refers gay people the muny to her ntal office, where she is a ntal hygienist.
I’M A GAY MAN. HERE’S WHY I DON’T CELEBRATE PRI MONTH
"Gay and lbian children should not only get the msage that they are loved, but also that they are not damaged or ls than.
If you are worried about how others will treat you bee you have a gay child, you need to reexame the nature and strength of your relatnship the same way you would tell your child to do if one of her iends sudnly rejected her upon fdg out she was gay.
I foc on keepg eye ntact wh objects the distance but then the thoughts pop so quickly…Don’t look gayCan they see if I am gay? I also have ught myself on very few ocsns when I was younger (not so much now thankfully) when tellg someone ‘I am gay’ I would say a quieter tone so as not to draw attentn. I was not fortable my own sk as I do not I thk I have fully accepted who I am, a gay man livg this world.
HOW TO KNOW IF YOU ARE GAY
So om then on I answered hontly and tell them before they asked me that y, I was datg this great guy and the embarrassed feelgs would subsi and I would feel more a kid growg up Mayo the early 1980’s I heard the term gay beg ed but always a negative manner.
I knew om a very early age I was gay so my earlit beliefs of myself were negative, shameful, disgtg and then my anxiety and shyns veloped.
Then I started Irish dancg wh the rt of the kids, all the lads hated , I loved , I was really good at but I felt embarrassed, look at the gay boy Irish dancg. I stopped somethg I loved so that I uld f by pretendg to like thgs I hated other kids still picked up on my gayns, my differenc.
WHY I'M NOT PROUD OF BEG GAY
I never talked about girls, didn’t follow an English football team, talked more to girls as I felt more relaxed around them as they were not llg me gay, queer, homo, well at the begng they didn’t. I looked like the other guys but I was different, I was gay, I stood out to them and they hated me.
Even up to my early 20’s as I spoke to people about beg gay I would say if someone offered me a tablet to be straight I would take two so I uld be like the rt of the lads out there, to f , to fa to the background, to be one of the mak me feel ls than, not good enough, not handsome enough, not smart enough. I thank God today for makg me the person I am now, I was meant to be a gay man livg this betiful yet plex world and now I am embracg my differenc, my quirks, the quali that make me who I am. I am really startg to love the person I am right now who happens to be gay and I am lettg those old feelgs of shame that hnted me go forever.
That was not my young person out there who is gay and is havg issu wh this please be strong, there is nothg wrong wh you.