How affected are you by your being-gay-is-wrong education?

I grew up in a christian family and went to catholic school from 1st grade to 12th, so you can imagine how many times I've heard stuff like "it's adam and eve not adam and steve"

it hasn't really affected me too much, I'm not religious in the slightest but growing up having a faith forced onto me, especially one where there's such emphasis on being punished and going to hell for "moral wrongdoings" still kind of squicks me out sometime. I absolutely don't see any wrong in being gay but occasionally I'll get passing "holy shit am I going to hell because I have a girlfriend" types of thoughts and it will scare me for a second, despite not even identifying as a christian anymore or really believing in a heaven and hell, but most of my life I've been told you'll burn in hell for such things so it stuck, I guess

I've never been embarrassed or disgusted with myself because of my orientation though, and I'm fine telling anyone who asks that isn't family, as my family is super christian and stuff like I said.

 

Actually I'm not affected by being-gay-is-wrong education but by gay-free education. For so many years I lived in a completely gay-sterile environment where nothing gay ever existed. No wonder that even though I fantasized about being with women intimately I never suspected I may be a lesbian.

 

It has affected me deeply. Not specifically from my parents, but from the community I grew up in. I would say its stunted my emotional and sexual development by at least 10 years.

When I was younger, I feared the rejection that would come with disclosure. So the best years of my youth went completely wasted. Still lots of regret. Still wished I was strong enough to come out earlier. Still wish I had befriended that gay guy in my high school class. We could have been good friends. Still dont like the insecurity that Im left with after an extremely lonely childhood.

But the past cant be changed. Ive made peace with that now. And my future is looking very bright indeed.

 

I used to be. Now I am just myself. For years I would make jokes about gay people just to try and seem "Normal".
Now...its like I was never affected by the stuff I heard. My partner tho does have issues. She worries our children will hate us for not having a dad. But slowly she is learning that is not the case. Research and reeducating yourself helps combat that harmful things you learned before.

 

It had a profound effect on me.. Reinforced by my headteacher being outed and then shooting himself .. Sort of sent a message to an impressionable 8 year old. Still working on that one ...

 

Not one bit... actually, in my case it would be "how affected was your family by the fucks you didn't give about their 'gay is wrong' drivel".

 

I was never told that gay was suppose to be wrong, only that there exists idiots who think that and that they should be put in their place.
I guess I'm pretty lucky growing up in a very tolerant country, in a very accepting family.

 

Oh God it's affected me so badly in life. I went through hell for three years denying my sexuality because it was wrong and immoral and unnatural.. Even now, when my mother pokes at me to get a girlfriend even after i told her my orientation, I just sit there and nod. I'm scared to acknowledge the fact that i still have him and have future plans with him. Life has never truly been kind to me. With every good thing thats happened in my life, a huge asterisk would follow it. But it's time to move on I suppose.

 

It always bothered me to a degree but after coming out as bisexual it's definitely shot up a lot.I wish I could educate people or at least show them how they are wrong but much like a day at work trying to endlessly point out to a customer why their bill is what it is (I work for Comcast) it becomes very emotionally draining.I'm an atheist so my perspective is usually based on scientific information I have read with my emotions tied to it for obvious reasons
I witnessed gay bigotry in high school back in the mid 80s.One of my best friends was gay and the stuff he had said to him almost on a daily basis was unreal. The level of hate born of ignorance is astounding.He was also African American so I have no idea how that may have played into it or what kind of verbal abuse he may have put up with outside of school. It breaks my heart to think that someone can't be open about who they are because of people that don't want to wake up to the fact that their thoughts and beliefs have no scientific basis and are incredibly unrealistic
For me I came really close to coming out in my early 20s but so many women I knew when I asked said they would not date a bisexual guy.I did make the mistake of admitting to one girl what I felt and she decided to tell a bunch of people and even though I wasn't 100% sure I was labled as the "bisexual" .It hurt a lot

 

The only "gay is wrong" education that I received was from Religious Education. But my class is very intellectual and criticises most of my RE teacher's teachings. After he "taught" us that, a group of my classmates went straight to the Deputy Headmaster about it.

Even the Christian committee believes that what he teaches does more harm than good so therefore most people don't take his teachings forward and apply them, most people just ignore it and just let him teach what he teaches.

 

My parents think nothing bad of gay people, and we didn't get religious education at school, only Life Orientation classes, that teach us that everyone is equal and should be respected. So you could say I've been taught pro-gay. The church we go to never touches on the subject either.

Although, LGBT people were almost never mentioned. So I never knew much. Perhaps why I didn't think ONLY fantasizing about guys was strange for the longest time.