What do you think it would have like, coming out in the 1980s?

I came out from about 1990 onwards. So not much had changed from the 80s. There were cell phones for most of the 80s btw - just very big and clunky ones. The first one was commercially available in 1983.

I never felt alone, but I also had a sort of 'gay big brother' in my supervisor at work. If I had questions he could answer them, although mostly it was just having someone to talk to in general and check out guys with (working on a college campus in the sun belt is GREAT for this btw). And I was always comfortable with myself.

Todd

 

I imagine many syth goth songs would be played in lonely corners with bad speakers and hung up sports jackets.


Come to think of it, that's not too far from the way I live right now... only speakers have gotten swapped for high end headphones and sport jackets got swapped for plaid shirts

 

Probably much more difficult than it is now (much the same as a husky pups life would've been in the 1800's LOL)!!

I think online has been a huge help to the recent generations of LGBT youth in terms of support. In the 80's there wouldn't have been obvious support places. And the AIDS scare was present.

Of course we can only speculate..I'm sure there are members on this forum who have actually experienced this first hand!

 

I don't have to wonder.

Lex

 

I wouldn't dare to come out in the 80's. I'd rather stick consentrated hydrogen peroxide in my eyes.

 

I don't know if I could trust a society, that embraces acid-wash clothes, with my well being. LOL.

 

Never was disused as much as it is now so it's hard to say.

 

I'd probably just enjoy the music from that era....everything else, not really much .

 

I would have saved that particular reaction for *What do you think it would have been like coming out in the 1950's*

 

I don't think it would have been possible for me to come out or form a relationship with another man unless I moved to one of the big cities of the UK with an active gay scene. Even then, I'm not sure I would have come out.

In the 1980's Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and her government had no appetite for improving the lot for LGBT people, quite the reverse, in fact.

There was still a great deal of ignorance and hostility towards LGBT and other minority groups, made worse by the hysteria surrounding HIV/Aids. Even in the 90's a local gay bar closed after a few months after being targeted by homophobic thugs.

For all its faults the internet has brought LGBT people across the world together, as this site demonstrates. In the 1980's I'd have struggled to identify another gay man in my town.

In all honesty, I think I would have been regarded as a confirmed bachelor with no sexual interest whatsoever in the 80's.

 

In a way, coming out as a Christian now is like coming out in the 80's because the church is always 20-30 years behind.

 

Terrifying. Just to think about it makes me feel bad

 

CNN talked about coming out in the 1960's on that show "The Sixties," and back then there were college campuses that paid students $10 for each gay man/lesbian he or she turned in to the school. Combine that with HIV/AIDS, it'd have been a tough time to be LGBT.

 

I wouldn't even know I was trans, I found out what it was by Internet. I would have ame out to my friends as bi (assuming I'd have the friends I have right now), but not to anyone else. Maybe parents, maybe.

 

I missed it by a couple of years--although to be honest I really regret not being out for college which would have put me out in the late eighties. I have to say it just wasn't that bad in the early nineties. I experienced remarkably little resistance or backlash. But, still, I do tend to think it is much easier now.

 

I lived through that era. One thing I recall is that I probably had a very limited understanding of what it is to be gay until I was well into my teenage years. Yes, words like gay, fag, and fairy had been thrown about casually among boys as early as 4th grade. But all I really knew was that they were insult words boys used on other boys. I never used any of them, myself. Actually, I was sort of puzzled by fairy. Being in WA, I heard the word as ferry. I'm not sure that I wondered why it was an insult to call a boy a big boat, but it's possible. Although it's worth noting that I was probably behind the times even by the standards of my generation. My parents did not tolerate certain words, as I discovered when I first learned dick. Also my mother had a strong prudish streak, thanks to her side of the family.

So...when same sex attraction kicked in, I really didn't understand it. Indeed, sexual attraction wasn't something I understood. My sex ed had all been along the lines of "fall in love, get married, and when you want to have a baby..." And so I started denial in various forms. I liked a boy's body because it was somehow better than mine. I felt a strong feeling about a boy, but it was because I wanted a friend. Etc. Etc. Etc.

I never once heard of anyone openly gay in my high school. (Although, admittedly, I was an outsider, so I'm sure there was tons of gossip I never heard.)

The first time I even heard of anything gay being openly discussed was when I was a college student at a local college. One of the professors wrote a play talking about AIDS, and a couple of the characters were gay. I had to see the play because of one of my classes. And afterwards, one student was asking in class if it was true the rumor that professor who wrote it was gay. My professor sat frozen a moment, then quietly admitted that was, indeed, the case. As the discussion went, there was at least one religious type who admitted having moral qualms about homosexuality.

I was very much of an outsider at that college too. Story of my life, I guess. But the bits and pieces I remember suggests that it would have been very hard being openly gay. I knew one guy who said he'd heard one of his friends in high school might be gay, and if he'd known that, he might not have been friends. There was something in the paper. I can't remember the details, but I can remember the sense that for many there gay was not good.

And I'm pretty sure there was no GSA.

As far as I can recall, I never once considered the thought that I might be gay. And I think had that thought occurred to me, I'd probably have really gone into denial.

 

wait, um the part about turning lesbians and gays into school does not make sense to me, can you explain?

 

Aye.

Some churches are very accepting, however. But the more vocal ones tend not to be.