How to Cope When You're Gay and Lonely | GQ

Contents:

• HOW TO COPE WHEN YOU'RE GAY AND LONELY
• GAY, MIDDLE-AGED, AND LONELY AS HELL
• THE SHY GAY GUY
• A GAY MAN AT MIDLIFE PONRS BEG LONELY AND ‘INVISIBLE’
• SAVAGE LOVE: I AM A LONELY, AGG GAY MAN; WHAT SHOULD I DO?

HOW TO COPE WHEN YOU'RE GAY AND LONELY

Part of realizg you're gay, or bi, or trans, or non-bary, or anythg other than cisgenr and heterosexual is acceptg you’re different—and somewhat separated—om the majory. Here he shar his journey to overe the sense of isolatn he felt growg up gay a small U.

GAY, MIDDLE-AGED, AND LONELY AS HELL

At the time, there were no real gay role mols except for Graham Norton and Jack om Dawson's Creek—and I certaly didn't intify wh him bee I wasn't a football player. I felt like I was pletely on my rried on until I was 16, when I started gog out to gay bars my hometown. I ma one gay iend, who I'm actually close to now.

For the first time I've been able to form a good group of gay iends and create my own support work. I'd go on gay chatrooms but that was jt a facels nversatn wh someone who uld have been anyone.

I thk if I'd had iends who were gay when I was growg up, my life would have been so different.

THE SHY GAY GUY

I now know there were other kids at my school who were gay, but they didn't e out till much later. The Epimic ofGay Lonels. Only a few of the nam of the gay men this article are real.

A GAY MAN AT MIDLIFE PONRS BEG LONELY AND ‘INVISIBLE’

Jeremy[1] is not my only gay iend who’s stgglg. For years I’ve noticed the divergence between my straight iends and my gay iends.

“And told me two sentenc later that she knew I was gay. My parents still claim that they had no ia I was gay. In our lifetime, the gay muny has ma more progrs on legal and social acceptance than any other mographic group history.

SAVAGE LOVE: I AM A LONELY, AGG GAY MAN; WHAT SHOULD I DO?

As recently as my own adolcence, gay marriage was a distant aspiratn, somethg newspapers still put sre quot.

Public support for gay marriage has climbed om 27 percent 1996 to 61 percent 2016.