Are Most Gay Men Lonely?

Contents:

• HOW TO COPE WHEN YOU'RE GAY AND LONELY
• GAY, MIDDLE-AGED, AND LONELY AS HELL
• “I REALIZED I WAS GAY”: 29 MEN IN THIS ONLE GROUP WHO CAME OUT LATER IN LIFE SHARE WHAT WAS THEIR TURNG POT
• INVTIGATG THE SID RISE OF THE GAY CEL

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. 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.

But for someone who tri to be sgle and celibate and also happens to be gay is easy to feel lonely, unloved, and abadoned.

GAY, MIDDLE-AGED, AND LONELY AS HELL

In our lifetime, the gay muny has ma more progrs on legal and social acceptance than any other mographic group history.

“I REALIZED I WAS GAY”: 29 MEN IN THIS ONLE GROUP WHO CAME OUT LATER IN LIFE SHARE WHAT WAS THEIR TURNG POT

Still, even as we celebrate the sle and speed of this change, the rat of prsn, lonels and substance abe the gay muny rema stuck the same place they’ve been for s. In a survey of gay men who recently arrived New York Cy, three-quarters suffered om anxiety or prsn, abed dgs or alhol or were havg risky sex—or some batn of the three.

INVTIGATG THE SID RISE OF THE GAY CEL

“Marriage equaly and the chang legal stat were an improvement for some gay men, ” says Christopher Stults, a rearcher at New York Universy who studi the differenc mental health between gay and straight men.

In the Netherlands, where gay marriage has been legal sce 2001, gay men rema three tim more likely to suffer om a mood disorr than straight men, and 10 tim more likely to engage “suicidal self-harm. TTravis Salway, a rearcher wh the BC Centre for Disease Control Vanuver, has spent the last five years tryg to figure out why gay men keep killg themselv.