✨️Reposting from previous instance✨️

#ComingOutStories

It is important for coming out stories and LGBTQIA+ History to be told. I am reposting this from my previous instance, not for sympathy, but so others know what my generation endured, so others will know they aren't alone, and to bring light to situations not all that different, 40+ years later.

My Coming Out Story

Up until late last year, I had only told a few people my coming out story. I now understand how important it is to share our experiences. Anyone reading these will realize they aren’t alone.

I’ve always been smaller than others my age. Add red hair, freckles, and glasses, I was a bully’s favorite target.

My bullying was extreme, often physical and much more than unkind teasing or simply being stuffed in a locker.

My home life was equally troubled. My father was abusive to my mother and us kids. There was no support system for me at such a young age. Seeking help from adults always made retaliation even worse.

Early on, I sensed I was different. Clearly, my classmates did as well.

In my freshman year of high school, some football players grabbed me, took me into a bathroom, and beat me to the point that an ambulance was needed.

Their excuse was “he’s a faggot.”

My family home was on a hill, in front of our High School.

The weekend after I was hospitalized, someone burned the word “FAG” into the grass on the back of the hill behind our house - facing directly into the front of the high school.

The humiliation I endured from the entire community, seeing that word burnt onto our property every day, was worse than the broken bones, stitches and bruises.

And so I was outed, believing that something was horribly wrong with me.

This was during the Reagan-Thatcher years. During my four years of high school the country was in the midst of the AIDS crisis.

The "adults" all around me mocked and ridiculed the activists seen on TV. Society seemed convinced that AIDS was a punishment for being gay.

The anxiety and stress, 24 hours a day, at school, at home, everywhere, was unbearable.

I frequently considered running away over the years. But I had three younger siblings who relied on me, especially when our father went into a rage.

After one too many times, I tried to intervene, and stand up for my mother. He did stop striking her, but with one hand around my neck, lifted me from the floor and tossed me against a wall, like a rag doll. We never spoke again.

Sadly my mother is one of the worst bigots I know. MAGA-style bigotry. To this day, she does not understand why it is racist to have a "plantation" motif in her kitchen, complete with "lawn jockey" and Aunt Jemima style figurines everywhere.
She thinks "religion can fix the sin of homosexuality."

I left that town after graduation, joined the Navy and rarely go back.

My support and love now come from friends and "found family" met along the way in the years since. My life is all the better for it.

@dugglebutt That is scary. We are happy you are here. There tons of bi folks on the Fediverse (waves) and a very welcoming community here. You might like checking out the #comingoutstories hashtag too.

Quand j'ai fait mon #comingout genderfluid à mon copain qui m'appellait " ma puce " il s'est mis à m'appeler " mon puceron ". #comingoutstories

@nuncio #ComingOutStories In, like 8th grade and through high school, I kept telling people I'm gay and most didn't believe me til 2nd semester, junior hs year. In college, I joined the #LGBTQIA group. Some of the guys said, in so many words, "Dave, you're not gay enough". When my family finally believed me, there were some tears and anxious questions. My gay friends and I got some low-level bullying from my little brother. Now, they accept my gayity. Now, Little Bro and I are very close. #GayMastodon

#ComingOutStories ?
I was never in.
Everybody knew I was gay before I even knew what gay was.
Harassed and bullied my entire life.
I just got used to it.
Big deal.

I've very much enjoyed reading all the #ComingOutStories...I plan to do my own...just not yet. ❤️

Me at 12: boy George is the prettiest man I’ve ever seen. I have a huge crush on him.

Me at almost 40 : im gay

Everyone : yes…. We know….

Me: someone should have told me….

#comingoutstories #karmaclub #boygeorge #queeraf

#ComingOutStories

I've known I was gay since I was 15, but my family was/is very much the "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" type. So I kept it down for a long time, and was ready to come out, but then my mom got sick with breast cancer, so I put myself on the back burner and became her primary caretaker (if I came out and my family responded poorly, mama bear would've torn them a new one and I didn't want to do that to a person battling cancer). (1/4)

@RiversideBryan @fraktur @NovaHellion

as a theater man always making new decisions about when a group is ready, as a teacher always in control who knows me ...

... and again and again public appearances, also in very big events, and with the rainbow-colored button of amnesty international on the jacket ...

Thank you for your touching start of the #comingoutstories and I hope it continues here...

@RiversideBryan @fraktur @NovaHellion
#ComingOutStories

my coming out still has small sequels to this day, because in Bavaria thinking is like in Texas: In #Munich a little more freedom in the city center and at #CSD on April 22nd, 2023 and at #idahobit on May 17th. Every year: At 15-17 first gay friendship in the country, then at 25 the realization that I was gay, at 30 a daughter, then living in shared apartments, /2

@RiversideBryan #ComingOutStories

Meine Coming-out-Story
Bis vor ein paar Monaten hatte ich nur wenigen Leuten meine Coming-out-Geschichte erzählt. Ich verstehe jetzt, wie wichtig es ist, unsere Erfahrungen zu teilen. Jeder, der diese liest, wird erkennen, dass er nicht allein ist.

Ich war schon immer kleiner als andere in meinem Alter. Fügen Sie rote Haare, Sommersprossen und eine Brille hinzu, ich war das Lieblingsziel eines Mobbers.

Mein Mobbing war extrem, oft körperlich und mehr als ...

Pink News: Reality star Chloe Veitch star says she’s ‘itching’ to date after coming out as bisexual https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/05/01/chloe-veitch-too-hot-to-handle-comes-out-bisexual/ #LGBT #LGBTQ #Trans #Lesbian #2SLGBTQ #comingoutstories #francescafarago #datingshow #Celebrity #ComingOut #comingout #Culture #netflix #TV