I feel bad for posting this… I know it is not anything that I should feel ashamed of, but seeing LGBT in life or in pictures is sometimes very frightening to me. My apologies for using stereotypes in advance, but seeing older gays, someone really 'flaming', or people part way through transitioning or transitioning later in life can sometimes even make me cringe. I feel awful, and it is nothing against the person themselves or going against the boundaries of 'normal' heternormativity, but it is something deep down inside me that gets very frightened. Maybe it is those things on a deeper level, but on a logical level it is not. I do not want to offend anyone, but I want to let this off my chest and see if I am the only one, or how it can be dealt with. :icon_redf
There is a phenomenon where trans women 'trigger' each other's dysphoria by being in proximity, especially if they are not passing well. This is a personal issue of the person being 'triggered' because they are not yet comfortable with themselves or secure in their gender identity. I would imagine it is the same for you - you are not yet comfortable being part of the GLBT spectrum, so you feel uncomfortable about seeing people who are visibly GLBT. When you are more secure in your identity, this will probably stop happening.
"I do not want to offend anyone, but I want to let this off my chest and see if I am the only one, or how it can be dealt with. " Better that you say it here in a safe environment and try and deal with it then hold it in and let it explode out in the world.
I remember before "coming out to myself", I thought seeing other gay couples was pretty frightening. I think seeing other LGBT people caused a weird internal conflict. Apart of me would identify with them but I didn't really want to admit that to myself. It gets better in time, or at least it did for me. But first and foremost, I think you have to accept yourself fully.
I was always kind of freaked out by the images of super butch lesbians, because I knew I wasn't butch - but they were and still are the most publicized, other than the real and staged lesbianism employed for modern media.
