Definition of gay

[Anonymous]

I'm so frustrated that I was so dumb and didn't know what being gay really meant for so long. Reading on here it seems everyone knew what it meant from a young age. All I knew gay to mean was wimp, girly, sissy, etc. I think it took the TV show Will and Grace for me to understand what gay really means, although Will and Jack are both the girly type so it was still hard for me to identify as gay.

So how did all of you who knew the truth about what gay means learn that? Are they teaching it in schools now?

[Pain]

Not school. Hell no.
When I was little, I made friends with people who ended up with shit in lives, ending up in the police beat section of the newspaper. I learned from them that gay was abnormal, disgusting, worth going outta your way to attack a gay. But after long, those people weren't friends. I then began thinking gay was something of a choice, from a super religious standpoint, and I found it disgusting to think of in public, though I looked up gay porn regularly back then. Then I started getting more comfortable with myself, and I still though that gay was something only about sex, but that subsided quickly, because I wanted more. And then I finally realized, I'd say about a year ago, that gay is just a word to describe someone who loves another of the same sex. It's so simple, but it took forever to get. It's shameful of me to have even thought as I did.

[Anonymous]

Where I'm from the word 'gay' is used to describe anything that isn't good. It could be a movie that was boring or it could be a pink t-shirt.
It's not taught in school but it was brought up during Sex Ed.

[RueBea85]

They don't really teach us about people who are gay, or being gay. At least nothing that I really remember. I don't remember being taught about LGBT issues, there were a few classes I took like Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology but even then it wasn't talked about a whole lot. The way I figured out what gay meant, I mean I always knew that gay people were attracted to other people of the same gender. But I didn't really know what it means, in terms of feelings.

The way I figured it out, was I began to have feelings towards people of the same sex. I immediately thought these feelings were wrong so I would deny them. My sister would ask, "Are you sure you're not attracted to her?" And I would say, "I can't be attracted to her, because she's a woman." Or "I can't be attracted to her, because I'm straight."

It finally took actually meeting another lesbian and becoming friends with her to realize that these feelings are real, that it is okay to like other women, to like people of the same sex.

Our society just automatically assumes that everyone is supposed to be heterosexual. Looking at tv ads, movies, books and even in music sometimes. It's gotten better showing more LGBT people in the media, but I think a lot of people grow up confused for these reasons. It can also be a lot harder if you don't personally know anyone who is LGBT becasue you feel like your feelings are wrong or that you don't fit in.

[kitsune309]

I knew what it "meant" from a young age, as in you liked people of the same gender. But I didn't know what it meant until I realized that that was me, and I didn't want to like boys, and I had an identity, and I knew what I was. It was an epiphany rather than a study. That didn't come from anywhere but inside.