Were you homophobic before you were LGBT+?

Nope, I felt mostly apathetic towards LGBT stuff in general. I looked at stuff about it from time-to-time but mainly didn't care.

 

I've always been the type of person to really question things rather than take them at face value. This reflected even in my childhood. My mother had always taught me that homosexuality was wrong, and even poked fun at them on TV and such. I think at some point, I just shrugged and went along, but I never really understood it. I didn't understand why it was such a bad thing, when it wasn't really harming anyone. I never really thought it was repulsive or wrong despite everyone in my family (except my sister) telling me it was.

As for LGBT issues, I was probably very apathetic and naive to it. I didn't really take note or care about LGBT stuff. I wasn't against LGBT, but I never took the time to understand them or empathize with them. Before high school, I was just in my own world playing video games, watching anime, and just enjoying myself.

Of course nowadays that's changed. LGBT is like 70% of my life now. Or perhaps, 80%. I think about it everyday, from just checking out an attractive guy in public, daydreams about relationships, or thinking about my current status of being gay in a homophobic family.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to those innocent middle school days where sex wasn't even something I had considered. But we're humans and we develop needs and desires so I accept that.

 

Not homophobic exactly, but ignorant. Since I'm a Christian I thought it was a choice. Well, when I fell in love for the first time with a woman I realized it definitely wasn't... LoL

 

That's very similar to me part from the homophobic family bit, my family aren't like that at all. I would say apathetic is the word because they are the type of people who don't care what their kids are as long as they are happy.
But back to me. Like you said when I was middle school age (when I didn't know I was gay) I live in my own world of anime and yaoi manga. That was all I needed. Back then I didn't even know of the LGBT acronym and didn't even know of the existence of trans people. As back then I was the sort of person that if it didn't affect me I didn't care.
However now I am the opposite. I pretty much support rights for for pretty much any minority especially LGBT.

 

Thus far on here maybe, but you definitely aren't the only person. It's funny how many homophobes end up coming out later on.

 

Kind of.
I was an ignorant baptist child. And I think I was a bit disgusted by the idea of people of the same sex being together. Then, after my mom and stepdad married, my stepsister told me that one of my aunts and one of my uncles were gay. And I froze.
It took me a bit to adjust to the idea. But once I actually sat down and thought about it after that, I adjusted.

 

Yes. Prejudice was enstilled in me from a young age, and even after that I still continued in ignorance for a log time.

Funny thing is, I was always drawn to gay couples and secretly thought they were pretty awesome. Of course the parents were very staunch in the "it's a sinful choice" mindset.

It took me longer than it should have, though, to come around. I did and thought a lot of things I with I could take back.

 

Somewhat. Small town, Catholic upbringing, macho classmates. "Fag" was a slur, and I never could hold onto male friendships. Never really thought hard about it, aside from the occasional obvious flaming classmate who was surrounded by girls 24/7. My thoughts were, "Why? You're embarrassing yourself and becoming a target. You deserve whatever comes your way."

Now I realize they were a lot more brave than most (although I'm sure they would argue they were simply living the only way they knew).

 

Sadly and consequentially, yes. Not necessarily before I realized I was, but I was rather indoctrinated as a child and was a horrible friend. A few close friends had come out to me back then when I was super religious and didn't think for myself, and I had driven them away... It's hard for me to process how cruel I was before I became atheist and later realized I was gay. I know we were children, but I wish there was some way I could go back in time and apologize to everyone, or just educate my younger self as my family failed to do.

These days, I attempt to help others so they don't make the same mistakes I did.

 

No. I simply didn't care, that's all.

 

I made a similar thread on this in the past, that you might want to check out.

http://emptyclosets.com/forum/sexua...phobic-before-realising-your-orientation.html

 

I was like 11 or 12 when I knew I was gay and apart from throwing around the word gay as an insult from time to time, I gave it little notice.. I didn't even know what non binary was until I was 13..

 

No. I didn't know about people being against same-sex relationships until I was 16 in a Religious Studies class. I went to a religious primary school and they never taught against it. They didn't mention for it either, other than when the word ''gay'' was in a song (it was an old song so the word ''gay'' there meant happy) and most people laughed so the teachers told everyone to stop laughing.

--

As a side note, there was somebody when I was 11 in class who said ''we're all straight on this table, aren't we?'' and I had no idea what ''straight'' was so I kept quiet. If I knew I was bi I would have said ''no'' - still wonder what would've happened.

 

I was taught that there's nothing wrong with being gay from an early age, I don't even remember having that conversation with my parents so it was probably just something I saw on TV or something and my parents explained what it meant and I was like "OK".

When I was old enough to think about it it was obvious to me that a man can love another man and I was a naive ally and fascinated by gay men. Still it was kinda' hard for me to understand that girls can fall in love with each other too. It seemed strange. Thinking back to that time when I was about 13-14 I think it was because I was in denial of my own sexuality so I kind of just unconsciously protected myself from the possibility of girls liking other girls. I still wasn't a homophobe nor did it make me feel grossed out to see two girls kissing etc. it just felt funny and something I couldn't wrap my head around.

Nowadays it's more strange for me to think that someone is straight than a part of the LGBT community.

 

Yes, I'm disgusted that I was. Went from homophobic, ignorant, to accepting. First people that came out to me were in high school use being 15/16 at the time and I still accepted them. If my parents were accepting towards gay marriage earlier I wouldn't have felt that way but I adopted that hate from kids around me. Still not a good excuse for anyone to have voted against it. I hope younger generations accept it more and focus on one's character. Funny part is I would have two male action figures kissing/on top of each other not aware why I was intrigue by doing so:lol:.

 

I was also apathetic, I didn't care about it because it didn't effect me or my family and I didn't know anyone who I knew was LGBT until after I started questioning.

 

Well, I followed the example from my family of laughing at any man who looked or acted femininely. Also, I actually remember pretty clearly pointing and laughing at a trans woman at the supermarket once and thinking how weird it was when I was about 8. And I'd long since held stereotypes about gay people only being either very flamboyant or hyper masculine. Not proud of any of it and I'm still trying to get over some it which still lingers and try get the rest of my family to be more open minded. But they're trying they're best at least, and that's all I can ask for.