I’m Gay And I Eat At Chick-Fil-A. Should I Feel Ashamed?

Contents:

• LIVG AUTHENTILLY THE LGBTQ COMMUNY: HOW TO MOVE PAST “GAY SHAME” [VIO]
• SELF-LOATHG AMONG GAY PEOPLE IS NOTHG NEW. WE’RE OVERWHELMED BY
• TOM ALLEN: THE IA OF GAY SHAME STILL PERVAS
• OVERG THE SHAME OF BEG GAY
• COMG OUT OF SHAME: TRANSFORMG GAY AND LBIAN LIV
• WHY MY BOOK IS GAY: AND I'M PROUD OF
• GAY SHAME: 5 WAYS GAY MEN COMPENSATE
• GROWG UP GAY
• I’M GAY AND I EAT AT CHICK-FIL-A. SHOULD I FEEL ASHAMED?
• GAY SHAME

LIVG AUTHENTILLY THE LGBTQ COMMUNY: HOW TO MOVE PAST “GAY SHAME” [VIO]

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. 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. Livg Authentilly the LGBTQ Communy: How to Move Past “Gay Shame” [Transcript] For some people, gay shame may seem like a term for only queer, cisgenr men.

Watch a ee webar on how to live thentilly by overg gay shame Breakg the cycle of gay shame the LGBTQ muny So how do we break the cycle of shame the LGBTQ muny? Read more about how gay men pensate for gay shame Developg a sense of LGBTQ empowerment Fdg the eedom and LGBTQ empowerment to be the te you may not be a lear journey. Internalized homophobia n be fed as the tenncy of some lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (LGBTQ) dividuals to regularly validate, margalize, and/or opprs their own or other LGBTQ members’ sexual orientatn, sexual inty, self-worth, dividual exprsns, and human rights.

SELF-LOATHG AMONG GAY PEOPLE IS NOTHG NEW. WE’RE OVERWHELMED BY

Often, those wh gre of ternalized homophobia are nscly or unnscly socialized to believg that members of the LGBTQ muny are “abnormal”, “shameful”, “unsirable” and “unacceptable”, and should be regard wh disda (self-rejectn) and ntempt (self-loathg). It is important to emphasize that ternalized homophobia typilly occurs the ntext of a hetero-centric society that often stigmatiz, nigrat, and nmns LGBTQs. It is also signifint to note that while some people wh ternalized homophobia are “out of the closet” and openly alg their own sexual orientatn/sexual inty issu, many others are still “ the closet” (to themselv and/or to others) and secretly stgglg.

Many closet LGBTQ dividuals grew-up tradnal, nservative environments where “anti-gay bias” and “gay bashg” are the norm fay, social, tnal, relig, media, social media, and polil environments.

TOM ALLEN: THE IA OF GAY SHAME STILL PERVAS

It is a classic example of gaslightg, where a perpetrator ( this se a hetero-centric, homophobic society) nvc the victim that she/he/they are much ls important and worthy than who they tly are. While some LGBTQ dividuals may ocsnally dabble the followg behavrs, which might not be a ser issue, someone wh strong ternalized homophobia will routely engage one or more of the pathologi (dysfunctns) below, while remag largely unaware of (or unncerned wh) the tangible and psychologil damage done to onelf and others. Defendg, jtifyg, and excg dividual acts of homophobia fay, iendships, school, at the workplace, or other social or stutnal scenars (learned helplsns).

OVERG THE SHAME OF BEG GAY

Sourc of Shame for Gay MenFrom an early age, gay and queer guys know we might be punished for the thgs we do or the thgs we like: gam, toys, televisn shows, clothg and our secret ter search. What we don't discs is that sport n be an extremely difficult space to navigate, even for cisgenr, straight gay or queer guys have experienced toxic masculy the ntext of male team sports or locker rooms.

COMG OUT OF SHAME: TRANSFORMG GAY AND LBIAN LIV

How awful to thk you need to put people down orr to survive, to navigate spac, and to be for many gay men n be traced back to prsur to date girls and to make sure other guys know you fd girls attractive. Shame and ExpectatnsOne form of trma that many gay men, and racialized folks, particular, experience om ternalizg the high expectatns imposed on by our muni and fai. If Ethan Stabl, the 20-year-old man nvicted on Monday of planng to kill atten of a lol gay pri event Cumbria, was really bisexual as he claimed urt, why would he want to hurt other LGBT people?

Sadly he wouldn’t be the gay people know the most homophobic school bully often pops up the lol gay bar a few years later, but there are wir exampl: Hollywood agents who bar clients om g out, historil figur such as Senator McCarthy’s anti-gay lawyer Roy Cohn, who mataed till the end that the Aids-related illns that killed him was liver ncer, the untls homophobic policians ught wh male rts. Omar Mateen, who mted Ameri’s most adly homophobic attack at the Pulse nightclub Orlando, Florida 2016, pledged his allegiance to Isis but was also alleged to have ma sexual advanc towards men.

WHY MY BOOK IS GAY: AND I'M PROUD OF

This should be ont-page people are not the only on to suffer such shame, but experts, both gay and straight, agree that gay kids are overwhelmed wh . Many bury their feelgs, hopg they’ll go away, some psychologilly “spl”, like the heterosexually married men who believe anonymo ter hook-ups don’t unt as gay if they happen secret.

Jt this week I met a young man who told me he hated gay pri, hated effemate men but ccially was tryg to work through the feelgs by talkg about them. Jt last month, the 38-year-old prenter of the Disvery Channel’s Storm Chaser programme, Joel Taylor, died om a GHB overdose on an Atlantis gay cise. So much foc has been on changg laws and enuragg footballers to e out or on promotg sexual eedom – all important thgs – that we’ve missed the huge ground-level sufferg of those stgglg wh the legacy of society’s gay shame, right unr our may not f the narrative we wish to promote but there are huge numbers of people gettg themselv to ser suatns whout enough support.

Image source, Aemen SkarImage ptn, Allen says edy is a place where people n explore and celebrate their quirksAt the turn of the lennium, when edian Tom Allen was a teenager, a celebry g out as gay regularly ma headle late Boyzone sger Stephen Gately was splashed across the ont page of the Sun when he revealed he was gay 1999. "Image ptn, Allen recently appeared on a Covid-safe edn of Mock The Week, alongsi Rhys Jam and Athena KugblenuOcsnally, a story volvg homosexualy still has the power to make the news headl today, but only when 's somethg really out of the ordary.

GAY SHAME: 5 WAYS GAY MEN COMPENSATE

Equal marriage was troduced the UK 2014, and earlier this year Prime Mister Boris Johnson announced plans to outlaw gay nversn therapy were beg brought Allen not is "still tricky" for gay people to e out. "That programme went out on Rad 4 on Sunday afternoons the 1960s, and wasn't legal to be gay at that pot, and yet here they were talkg gay slang.

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. 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.

GROWG UP GAY

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 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. 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 know right now you might thk this is so huge but you have so many other great quali that make you who you are and beg gay is jt one of someone did have a tablet that uld turn me om gay to straight, I would take that tablet and flg so damn far away. I love who I am, I love that I am gay man livg my life and I love that now my differenc that I hated so much as a kid are now beg rpected, rejoiced and accepted.

This is an article for another day, but so many of ternalise this shame when we never we n be is te to ourselv, rpect others and most importantly rpect and love ourselv, and then we n make posive chang this betiful yet plex world of rmatn BeLonG To is the natnal anisatn for Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenred (LGBT) young people, aged between 14 and 23 – Contact for more you need help please talk to iends, fay, a GP, therapist or one of the ee nfintial helple servic.

I’M GAY AND I EAT AT CHICK-FIL-A. SHOULD I FEEL ASHAMED?

In orr to fully prehend the nature of the ntemporary lbian/gay experience, we mt nont the problem of shame while also furtherg the task of enlargg lbian/gay nscns.

GAY SHAME

If we are to effect substantive, lastg change the personal liv of gay people, then we mt beg wh a searchg quiry to shame that expands our knowledge of this misunrstood human emotn. This Book Is Gay Photograph: Jam DawsonIf I were to be llected the Tardis and flown back to 1996 there are several thgs 15-year-old Jam Dawson would not believe if I were allowed to talk wh him: He wouldn't believe he'd one day meet Sporty Spice; he wouldn't believe he'd work wh Ace om Doctor Who; he fely wouldn't believe he'd bee a published YA of all those, the thg he would be least likely to accept is that he would one day be proud to be gay. The lsons were both explic – people at school llg me Dolly Dawson, or simply, poofter – and implic; there were no gay role mols anywhere sight.

Those that do teach a hundred per cent of pupils sex tn that is only relevant to nety-five per cent of reason I am nstantly harpg on about sexualy is the hope that some of those young people who are hidg, n see and hear me – a vaguely succsful and very happy gay man beg succsful and happy. I hope people will read This Book Is Gay wh pri, bee while we are as normal as the day is long, the rt of the world don't always see that way. Internalized homophobia -- self-shamg, self-hatred -- leads many gay men, and many queer people general, to recreate their closets long after they're "out" by shunng others, particularly those they nsir "flamboyant.