Gay Is OK! Homepage

Gay is OK! How many lives before they learn?

What is 'Gay'?

Most people would say that 'gay' is the opposite of 'straight'.

Such black-and-white thinking does not reflect accurately the nature of sexuality. If it were so, people would have no interest in one gender or the other, yet we see many straights forming close bonds with their own gender, and gays with the opposite. Sexuality is a term which does not begin to cover the situation and is misleading in its emphasis on sex. The main aspect of orientation is love and affection, it only follows that one prefers sex with a loved one.

Name-Calling and Insults

If you are gay, or even falsely perceived as such, you will hear ugliness from some other people constantly. Even more so in the teen years. In major high schools, it is reported that this is very common, and comes primarily from kids who are insecure in their sexuality; they are really fighting their own feelings which they don't yet understand.

You don't have to be gay to be hated. Racial, religious, ethnic background are only a few of the many reasons people find for hate. As I like to say "Hate is in the eye of the beholder." You are not what they think you are, you are yourself, a unique person. Be yourself and make no excuses for it, none are needed. In the words of one you know from childhood: "I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam."

Suicide

Is not the answer, it is defeat, an admission that 'they' were right. It only encourages the hate mongers to commit more 'murders by suicide' in the knowledge that they cannot be held legally accountable.

If your situation is intolerable, then get out of that situation. Most gays have been driven to thoughts of suicide at some time in their lives by hostile peers, unsupportive families, damning churches, oppressive laws. A third of all teen suicides are gay kids who could find no way out. Those who have survived and the loved ones of those who didn't, are here to offer their help.

If you are a survivor

There are over 3,000 web sites about Gay teen suicide prevention, but few of them are in the first person. That is what is needed. Only those who have lived through it can speak with assurance that they know what they are talking about, especially you who have attempted suicide and survived to find some accommodation.