Hi all, It is so weird that I am shaking as I type this. I have known that I am gay for a very long time. There are people in my life that know I am gay, including my wife. I told her of my struggles before we were married and talk about it openly whenever I feel the need to get something off my chest. I have spent the last 20+ years or so knowing that I'm gay but that I had "chosen" a straight lifestyle. Recently, however, based on a whole bunch of things that I won't go into detail on, I finally had the epiphany that there is a HUGE HUGE difference between knowing that we are gay and accepting that we are gay. ( I thought that saying it out loud and telling a few people meant that I accepted it) I am FINALLY shedding a crapload of societal shame and guilt to accept myself. My fears have shifted from "OH my Gawd, what if people find out" to "OH my Gawd, life is about to potentially get much different." I am terrified and yet excited at the same time. My sister sent me a text recently. She said here are the people in your life that know. We all LOVE you and we are just waiting for you to decide to be you.
Congratulations on accepting yourself. This is a huge step forward and point where I want to get to also.
Aw yay what a brave thing to do so so so happy for you and the courage it took to do this !!! You're awesome and accepted !
That's EXACTLY how I felt when I finally accepted I'm trans two years ago. It took me until I was 50 to face up to myself, so it's never too late! Congratulations on taking this crucial step.
Congratulations! Am happy for you, and it sounds like you have a lot of love and support. I accepted I was bisexual about two months ago.
Accepting you are gay is a wonderful feeling. Scary too but when you do you just can’t help smiling when you think about starting to live the homosexual life you were meant to have. I am glad you are excited. Being gay can bring tremendous joy. So nice your sister is hoping you start being yourself.
Congratulations. A major milestone in your sexuality journey. In my opinion, realisation doesn't give you peace, acceptance does. Some just say it's ok to be gay, I say it's fantasic and I wish you all the best. I've always said that realisation (knowing) and acceptance aren't the same thing. For some, they occur very close together, but for the rest of us, they can take years, even decades between realising you're gay to accepting you're gay. I suspected in my teenage years I was gay but only came to realise it in my early twenties but due to societal, family and conformity, I didn't accept it for another 20 odd years. During that period, I denied and suppressed my homosexuality and lived a fake straight life. For the most part, I'm still doing that even now, but with the full knowledge and acceptance I'm gay and are no longer struggling with my sexuality. In fact, I'm very happy and proud to be gay, it's a pity it took so long from realising to accepting.
It took me so long to be very happy I am gay too. Now I have no shame in it at all. Among my friends one woman has a husband with my same name so they call him Lisa’s Brett and they will refer to me as Gay Brett so not to confuse who they are talking about. To me hearing this sounds no different than if they said Tall Brett or Short Brett. It’s just an extra description of who I am. I have fully accepted I am gay in part with the help of these female friends and knowing they say it as something that is totally normal is nice. The only think I would like to change about it is hopefully someday it will be replaced by [my husband’s name]’s Brett. Being gay and accepting you are gay can make life truly enjoyable. I wish it came a lot earlier for me and hope those struggling with it find it soon.
I hope to have that acceptance moment soon. Reading your post made my heart tingle and long for a time of acceptance. Congrats
That’s awesome how you feel! It took a long time for me to accept that I was bisexual. I don’t always have the strongest feelings for men as I have always had for women, but I’m happy to be bi! I hope someday that I’m able to share my feelings with others, but it’s something I have to work towards. I’m grateful to able to talk to others on here and be able to open up more about my sexuality Best wishes!
