Lgbt – be Proud!

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. My life is much different from most anyone elses only for one reason, and a sad reason it is: I’m gay.

My name is Tyler, and I am a high school student living on the West Coast. I’ve lived in the same area my entire life, and so I’ve gained the respect of others before I officially announced who I was just one year prior to writing this article. I’m gay, and everyone in my community knows it. I thought I would share my experiences with you because living a lie is very unhealthy. Yes, you may be judged, but there are others out there.

I’ll jump to middle school to begin my story 7th grade, everyone’s dating everyone else, except for me. I’ve had some girls come onto me a bit (some of us are still friends), but for some reason, I just wasn’t interested with them. I believed that I had no reason not to be at the time. Now that I reflect on it, I could say I was “confused” about who I was. The usual middle school drama soon came along well into the second semester of my 7th grade year: “This person broke up with that guy?!” or “That person is so blah blah blah!”. I was still lost about who I was socially. One day, though, a boy came up to me, about the same height. He asked me “Why have you been rejecting all those people?”, of which I responded with “I just don’t know.” I could tell by the look of his eyes that he knew what I was. He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to hang out after school. I asked why, and he said that he knew my problem. So we took his bus, he dropped by his house, and we walked to the mall.

“So you think you know my problem?” I asked him, who told me his name was “Skyler” (a bit ironic). He replied, “No. I know your problem. Your problem is that you don’t have a problem.” I asked him what it meant, and instead of replying with words, he replied with actions. He just kissed me.

Now normally, when someone randomly kisses you, you either knock them out or proceed to report them to the police for sexual assault. My instance, however, I didn’t call the cops. Instead, I didn’t resist. He just kissed me.

“How do you feel?” he asked me. I stood there, staring into his eyes, his glaring back into mine. I stood there, silent for a good 30 seconds. Finally I built up the courage to admit it. “I’m gay.”

The next couple years wasn’t easy for me. However, it wasn’t as bad as I imagined it to be. I was open about who I was, and people still welcomed me with open arms.

Your story will probably be different than mine, but we will all have a story, one day or another. The best thing you can do is “be yourself”. Show who you really are, and be proud about it. Yes, you’ll be flooded with all these questions. The one I get most is “How did you know you were gay?” I then either proceed to tell the entire story I told here, or just say “It’s a long story.”

I urge you, if you’re LGBT, express it, be proud, and live happily. There’s a non-physical war going on in America. If you admit that you’re LGBT, you’re helping securing rights in another area for gay rights.

I thank you for reading this. I hope you have the courage to show yourself.