The Gay/Trans Panic Defense: What It is, and How to End It

I'M AAID THAT I'M GAY

"It’s illegal to be gay over 70 untri the world; the untri LGBTQ people lerally fear for their liv." * gay fear *

There are many gay men who say "I'm not part of the scene" -- men who hate gay bars and, prumably, crowds of queer people general. 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.

But you mt spend time wh others, whether that means havg a group of gay movie iends or queer gamers or playg on a gay sports team.

THE 'GAY FEAR' MEME IS LEAVG 'QUEER EYE' FANS IN STCH

* gay fear *

This parable piece by lbian wrer Sarah Prager go through the lp of great gays who changed the world -- om ventor Alan Turg to Tchaikovsky, the poser, to the Renaissance pater and ventor Leonardo da Vci. Read the numbers: In four years, more than 5, 596 people the Uned Stat had died of AIDS, many of them gay men and transgenr women.

Fd a gay elr who's been where you are and r for your well-beg, someone who unrstands you and never pass judgment, someone who lets you make the mistak you need to make. There would be no ternalized self-hatred if no one had ever told you that beg gay is wrong, or that gay sex is disgtg, or that gay men n't feel real love, or that beg transgenr is fake, or that beg nonbary is a mental illns or a ll for attentn. If you thk a word like "gay" or "queer" works for you right now (aga, don't have to work for you forever -- labels do not e wh lifetime ntracts) and you're not ready to tell everyone, simply say out loud to yourself.

The term homophobia was first scribed 1972 by Gee Weberg, and fed as an irratnal fear, hatred, and tolerance of beg close quarters wh homosexual men and women.