3 Ways to Behave Around Gay People if You Don't Accept Them

Contents:

• HOW TO BEHAVE AROUND GAY PEOPLE IF YOU DON'T ACCEPT THEM
• THE FACT NO ONE LIK TO ADM: MANY GAY MEN ULD JT HAVE EASILY BEEN STRAIGHT
• WHERE ARE THE MOST DIFFICULT PLAC THE WORLD TO BE GAY OR TRANSGENR?
• THE WORST (AND BT) PLAC TO BE GAY AMERI
• IT’S STILL DANGERO TO BE GAY WYOMG
• HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

HOW TO BEHAVE AROUND GAY PEOPLE IF YOU DON'T ACCEPT THEM

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.

THE FACT NO ONE LIK TO ADM: MANY GAY MEN ULD JT HAVE EASILY BEEN STRAIGHT

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. 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.

WHERE ARE THE MOST DIFFICULT PLAC THE WORLD TO BE GAY OR TRANSGENR?

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. However, the ntued existence of homophobia—spe the obv downsis—rais qutns about s basic nature: Do psychologil theori like those above really expla why gayns, specifilly, evok such fear, the kd that n sometim even lead to vlent speech and actn?

The only way to answer the qutns is to stop thkg of homophobia as a personal choice and unrstand as the evable and liberate rult of the culture which Amerin men are raised. We don’t hear about gay men disverg an tert women later life, and we rarely believe men when they say they are bisexual—the mon, if erroneo, wisdom is that any man who says he is bi is really jt gay and hasn’t admted yet. Even if relign and Esquire didn’t teach men to be sred of each other’s bodi, they would still be aaid of the way a bsh wh gayns n so sudnly erase the rt of their sexualy.

THE WORST (AND BT) PLAC TO BE GAY AMERI

J suggts that some men are "born nuchs, " an ancient term for beg gay, that the people are part of God's natural orr, and heterosexual marriage is not the right path for everyone. When I was young, I was told the whole world was divid to heterosexual men and heterosexual women, bar a small number of unfortunate ‘homosexuals’ of both genrs and possibly an even smaller number a third tegory, ‘bisexuals’, who ‘swung both ways’; pl, fally, a ty band of wretched creatur who were physilly not que one thg or the other.

IT’S STILL DANGERO TO BE GAY WYOMG

He found that almost half his male terviewe had reacted sexually to both genrs; more than a third had had a homosexual enunter; and more than one ten reported roughly equally strong sexual rpons to both men and women.

HOW TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE GAY

In what pass for the gay ‘muny’, there’s somethg of a taboo about admtg, even to ourselv, that que a few of (not me) uld, wh a ltle axg and self-disciple, be ‘straight’.

Iraq“It pends on what part of the untry you are – but two words I’d scribe Iraq as ‘not safe’ for LGBT people, ” says Amir Ashour, Iraq’s only openly gay activist, explag that ’s not jt the threat om Islamic State Mosul and Hawija. This is bee Iran’s plex laws around homosexualy mean that men face different punishments for nsensual sexual terurse, pendg whether they are the “active” or the “passive” participant.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

It’s a double edged sword for some the LGBT muny though – the operatns have bee a ntroversial solutn for gay men tryg to rencile their fah wh their sexualy and the ernment ref to regnise transgenr people who don’t want surgery.

But Put’s ernment is openly anti-gay, and is discsg another homophobic law, which propos jailg people for public displays of non-heterosexual orientatn or genr 2013 Copenhagen gay pri para was dited to Rsia’s LGBT muny.

Nor has any actn been taken to shut down groups that openly go after LGBT people, such as Occupy Pedophilia, a natnal work of Rsians who torture gay men, and then post hugely popular vios of their acts onle. EgyptEgypt is wily regard as beg the biggt jailer of gay men – the New York Tim timated at least 250 LGBT people have been arrted sce 2013 while LGBT blog 76 crim timat that that number uld be closer to gay or transgenr is not illegal Egypt, but ever sce the ary phed out the print Mohamed Morsi 2013, the thori have engaged a crackdown on the LGBT muny, imprisong them on the charge of “bchery”, which wh a jail term of up to 17 years. Tradnal meetg spots are creasgly unsafe, and sce 2014 gay datg apps such as Grdr have been warng their Egyptian ers that “police may be posg as LGBT on social media to entrap you” have been known to ve journalists and meramen along on raids; those ught may be outed to the whole untry, even if arrted by mistake.