Your highschool experiance while being out

Came out freshman year to all of my friends, word spread, been made fun of a lot, nothing too awful...But I am still in school. (One more year!!...If I pass.)

 

The closest thing I ever experienced to being bullied while being out was when someone yelled up a crowded stairwell, "Owen takes it in the ass!", to which I cleverly (well, I thought it was clever) responded into the crowd, "And what if I do?" Aside from that, not a single bit of homophobic bullying to my history.

 

I told my classmates Freshmen year that I am bisexual. In my high school everyone is very accepting, or just non caring. I have never gotten teased or made fun of yet, while in high school. I am a Junior this year and I really enjoy going to school. Being able to express myself without having to think about who's judging me. Just about everyone at my school has a gay/bi friend, or relative. They don't mind the way I behave because they're used to it. But then again...I am in all honor class, so my classmates are very mature. I don't know how things are in the on-level classes.

 

I was not out high school (it really wasn't an option), but my sister was best friends with the one guy who was - well, he wasn't "out," but he couldn't hide because he fit the stereotype so closely. According to my sister, he was verbally and psychologically abused every single day he was there, and physically bullied fairly frequently. Based on everything she told me, I'm frankly surprised he made it out of there alive...

Luckily he got the hell out and is in a liberal college town - with a boyfriend apparently (lucky! ). I was bullied relentlessly, but for different reasons. As I noted before, "coming out" in any way, shape, or form, would not have been an option for me. I doubt I would have survived it.

So for all you folks who didn't have to deal with anything - consider yourselves very lucky. It could've been a lot worse.

 

Well I'm in my last year of school and everyone pretty apathetic. Having said that it isn't something that is really acknowledged. I essentially act straight alot of the time- I'm not exactly playing it up so much as heavily supressing my 'gay side'- I'm pretty convinced people would be uncomfortable if I talked about that side of me so I avoid it.

 

Idk if I was out or not. I may have been outed. My best friend told lots of people that I loved her and was a jealous crazy person. I think everyone assumed I was at least bisexual. I told a couple people out of pressure. My best friend told me everyone hated me. This was confirmed by several people.

I wasn't bullied outright but many had a dislike for me. Some girls were afraid to room with me, some wouldn't take a picture with me. A couple girls always made snide comments in my accounting class. High school was.....not fun. I was in the center of the rumor mill for about a year. Other guys were "out" in high school but no one hated them. They just hated me because they thought I was a crazy lesbo...who knows.

 

I envy those of you who had good experiences. Ready for a novel?
I was outed in 8th grade. I had told some close friends because I was just head over heels about my girlfriend and wanted to talk about her and this girl overheard. I saw it in her face that she had heard a friend's whisper.
The next day was just horrible. We had Spanish Day, which meant our entire grade was hanging out in the gym with next to nothing to do, except when the other grades came in to view our stuff. Five minutes into the day and I saw her with a friend of hers. She said, "Oh S, pull up your shirt, you don't want the dyke looking at you." And that was it. Everyone in grades 8-12, about 400 people, found out that day. Everyone asked and I felt like there was no point in lying.
Girls started holding up towels in the locker room so I wouldn't look at them. My name and phone number was written in the girl's bathroom along with "lesbo dyke." I had death threats put into my locker and at least once a year someone would break in and ruin my stuff; I ended up sharing a locker with a guy-friend almost every year to avoid that happening. I was molested and sexually harassed on several occasions. I couldn't walk though the hall without being called a dyke, carpetmuncher, etc. In 10th grade biology the substitute teacher let us play pictionary. Someone decided to write my name on the slip and the person drawing on the board drew to female stick figures and captioned it dyke - everyone guessed it.
Teachers never cared and some of them participated in it. When I got the first death threat, the principal told the girl to say sorry for making a tasteless joke. When my locker was vandalized for the first time, I was told I was responsible for taking care of that part of school property and if I didn't erase the comments of whore, sinner, dyke, etc. off of it I'd have to pay for it. In Spanish class a kid pulled me onto his lap and tried to put his hands up my shirt - I made eye contact with the teacher and she never said a thing.
In 10th grade, I started a GSA. I had to threaten to sue to get it, but I did. People ripped down posters and parents protested. I spoke at a school board meeting in defense of it and when the local newspaper published an article, my stepfather beat me for it. There were a few members - all people who were closeted. I graduated a year early and so I was only there for two years. I thought it would die out.
But you know what? My brother and youngest brother-in-law are seniors now and we made a difference. All that fighting, all of the work that I started, made a real difference. A lot of kids came out after I did. A few came out my final year there, maybe three or four. But now there's apparently a lot of out kids and they face almost no discrimination. And, after I got someone to come in to talk to the faculty, there's a zero tolerance policy in place. So I'm glad that I did something and it actually benefited others and all these kids aren't going through what I did less than 10 years ago.

 

I was not out in high school (too wimpy/confused to come out at the time) but our school was tolerant. There was a bisexual girl at my class, and she was never bullied. In fact, she's one of the "popular kids". About a year after i graduated i found out that my science teacher in year 11 was transsexual (FtM). Nobody told me (or anyone for that matter) about it and i never suspected a thing.

However, since i go to an international school, things might be quite different in local HK schools. I've heard stories where boys who acted effeminately were dragged into the toilet and beaten. There's also horrible rumours from Diocesan Boys School (a very prestigious private school in Hong Kong) that boys suspected of being gay are either (a) tied up and then have their pants pulled off or (b) "happy-cornered"- have their groins rammed against a pillar or a desk. If i study in those schools, i would definitely have not survived such torture..

amwm2wm3: i'm so sorry that happened to you. Schools should be an environment where we feel safe,

 

@amwm2wm3 You deserve a movie. I wasn't expecting that to have a happy ending. Thank you for sharing, and thank you for contributing to the world and making this place a little safer. Alot safer.
And thank you for sharing your story, it is so inspiring. We really can make a difference. <3

As for me, I've always been homeschooled. No bullying, except from my Christian textbooks that say I'm an alternative lifestyle. And I'm not out anyway.

 

Thanks, guys. I feel a little whiny when I write about it and I don't talk about it too much, but it was late for for some reason I decided to share.

 

I thought it was very well-written and informative. You could seriously give a speech about bullying and hope. I imagine that it's hard to talk about and remember though. <3

 

wow, that's amazing work that you did! I'm sorry that you had to take shit from ignorant people but you stood up for yourself and others, you should be very proud of yourself!!

 

I've been bullied and I haven't even come out. I'll wait a little while till I come out to everyone.

 

The most I ever told anyone in high school was that I was questioning my identity, and I didn't particularly get treated any differently. I did have a friend or two ask me about it, but that's it.

 

my high school was very gay-friendly. i think part of the reason is that this town is over 100 square miles and we had one high school (they've since built a second, but still), so it was a total melting pot of people & cultures.

 

I've recently started to come out, i am not in my last year of high school. People always naturally assumed i was bisexual since i was around 11/12 years old anyway. but i decided not to admit it until i was 16, i preferred to wait until we were all abit older. i have known people who came out at an early age and were discriminated against and bullied because of it. So i waited till i was 100% sure i was ready to tell people about it and my classmates were more mature, most of them accepted it.
Although still get comments and called names its nothing i cant laugh off, people are realizing i do not really care what they think and it is happening far less.
My girlfriend is at the same school as me and we have been dating for 7 months yet only a select few people know about it. Many bisexual, gay, curious people at my school are branded as attention seekers and i don't want to get that label so am keeping the girlfriend thing quiet until i leave school(which is in 2 months anyway)
Coming out has caused me to be called names and lose friends, even my 2 best friends since i was 8 now 'hate' me in case i crush on then. HA. I have gained many more strong friends as i can finally be myself.

 

WOW that sounds shitty sorry to hear about that. I'm thinking of telling a friend of mine but not sure if the school would react like that if they found out,most people on this island are pretty laid back besides the super Christians u should visit.

 

I grew up in a very religious and rural area and the population of the six towns that make up the school district together have a population of about 12,000. I wasn't expecting much else when I did come out and I never intended on everyone finding out because of it. If the people in Barbados seem cool about LGBT people, then you probably have nothing to worry about.