So... living in a small town as a blossoming gay man (or lesbian or transgender) is incredibly difficult. At least in the south. not to perpetuate stereotypes, but its a fact that most southern towns are by nature more conservative and less accepting. I live near richmond VA, and there is literally an absence of gay culture here. you can probably like count the entirety of the gay high school population on one hand. it just sucks Its difficult to come out in this type of environment because, despite the small town mentality and the fact that everybody knows everyone else, sex is everything. straight sex that is. and peoples attitudes toward you change entirely if they know youre gay. Its also difficult to find people to relate to on certain topics. My main idea for this thread is like how to deal with being gay and not knowing anyone else who is gay. I dont know anyone else who is, and only a few people know about it. i was just wondering if anyone had a similar experience or had any advice. I'm not necessarily looking for a relationship here, but it would be nice to have someone who has gone or is going through the same things as me rather than some ally fag hag best friend lol.
Living in a pretty unaccepting area in NC, I feel your pain. A lot of my worries come from how people would treat my family if they knew. I could see it being a problem more so for them than for me now that I'm out of High School (In community college in same area, but I wouldn't necessarily be vocal about it. Granted, I'm kind of open about it now to a couple of friends... it's complicated ) I don't really have a lot of advice, because admittedly, I haven't really faced the issue of coming out entirely. What I do know a lot about is having low points... really low points... Just make sure to know that your life is always worth living. Just because there are many people around you who think differently about life doesn't mean you're wrong or immoral. I wish I had more to offer than that. :V
Well I came from a small town. That is not to say there weren't gay people. There were, quite a few of them. But I know the town's people barely tolerated them and made it hard for them. Just that fact have made me question my sexuality while I was growing up. It can be hard I know, I've been there. Getting away from the town to the city was the best move I've made yet. That allowed me to explore my sexuality in full rather than secretive. It allowed me to live!
Small towns are very hard to grow up in, especially when they're very conservative and religious and you feel alone. All I can say about that is try coping the best you can with it because there are other gay people in your town, but they're probably very insecure about their sexuality due to where they live as well. My best advice (and maybe not practical at the moment for certain situations) is to consider moving to a larger, more accepting place once you're able to and once the situation permits. Besides that, it's really just making the best of what you can.
I live in a small, conservative, very evangelical Christian town in Alabama. The thing about small towns is that if Martha lets one rip in the middle of the night, Susie knows about it by morning. Another things is that in many small towns, a lot of people are related in one way or another, so that makes it harder not only to come out (I'm not), but also to find relationships (gay or straight). Where I live people tell their kids when they are old enough to date that they better be careful because chances are they will be courting their cousin. Haha. It's very stressfull and difficult to deal with, but such is life. One of these days, I hope to move out of state to a larger city where maybe I don't have to worry about it. Haha.
I don't have any advice but i do know how you feel, i have always lived in small towns with little or no gay community. I have never know any gay people. I only recently met a gay guy but he lives over an hour away and we don't talk to much. I just wanted you to know that you're not alone.
