peter
“It was back in 6th class. The school were getting us ready for our Confirmation, so they were taking us to all of these holy places and there was a retreat in the nearby church. It was there where we were chatting with my friend when she asked me if I ever heard of LGBTQ? I was like no, what is that? Then she started to explain each of the letters to me. She began with Lesbians saying that’s when girls love girls and I was like, oh… I see… I didn’t hear her explaining any of the other letters I just took a few minutes and said: Hmm… I think I might be a lesbian! It’s very ironic, but it was there on the church floor where I discovered that I am actually gay. I kind of always knew that something wasn’t right with me. When I was watching movies and I saw the girls going after the guys, I never really got it. No offence to you, but guys all look too much the same for me. Where is the variety here? I think girls have so much more to them. It took me two more years and careful consideration before I came out to my parents. I came out to my mom first after a relationship from school ended. We didn’t do anything and it wasn’t a deep relationship, but the break-up really hurt. That’s when I decided to tell my mom. I got into the car all sad and she was like: Hey! Are you okay? and I was like: ‘Mom, I need to ask you something… I am wondering how would you react if I told you that I like girls and that I just broke up with one. She was like, Okay… and then she just started driving, but after a minute of silence, she was like, Hmm… That makes sense! To my surprise, she was the most surprised about the fact that I was able to hide that I was in a relationship for a whole month. It was actually much easier than I thought it would be. My family were fine and totally supportive when they found out. Being a teenager is already very hard, but if you throw in being gay and my eating disorder, it definitely becomes a whole lot harder to manage.”
This post was highlighted by South Dublin Libraries as part of the ‘A Day in the Life’ Series.
‘A Day in the Life’ Series is a collaboration with South Dublin Libraries through the Dormant Account Funds. We created a series of interviews to get a glimpse into the lives of the people living in the North Clondalkin area. North Clondalkin Libraries will host the entire series as an exhibition in early 2022, as soon as restrictions allow.