Story by anonymous: I grew up being told that my mother would never be able to marry the woman she loved. She raised me in a small town in the middle of the Bible Belt, where everybody knew everything about everybody else, which seems like a rather harmless thing until you realize that people are actually pretty horrible. Since they knew of my mother’s sexuality, a lot of bigots wouldn’t let their children befriend me, which in turn resulted in more children not wanting to be around me simply because their friends weren’t allowed. This lead to a good bit of ridicule, and, long story short, my childhood up to age 13 was spent alone. If they were willing to shun an innocent child because she has a lesbian mother, I cannot imagine how they treated my mother herself. Their actions caused the subsequent three years to be spent absolutely terrified of people. I developed severe social anxiety, which I will likely struggle with for the rest of my life. I get nauseous and dizzy when I’m in public, and I can barely talk to people online, let alone in real life. It caused even more psychological problems in me, but I'd rather not talk about all that. Despite all this, I have managed to hold a small group of friends, and even a boyfriend, who, because he identifies as bisexual, really understands my struggle, even though he didn’t have to deal with it for as long as me. He was actually told once that he couldn’t go to a church camp because he was bisexual, which is a load of bull, if you ask me. Another friend of mine was publicly kicked out of his church because he was gay. They told him he could only come back if he apologized in front of the entire church. I can't comprehend how humiliating that must've been. Another came out in the 8th grade, and I had to watch as people tormented and bullied him for several years following. Every time it happened, I wanted so much to defend him, but every time I tried, the words got caught in my throat. To this day, I have been ashamed of myself for this. Blaming it on my damaged psyche is too easy; I am a coward. Another friend of mine is too afraid to come out as bisexual to her parents because she knows they will kick her out for it. My life, and the lives of people I hold dear, has been severely affected by homophobia, and you know what? It makes me so angry. I should not have gone through this, my boyfriend should not have to go through this, my friends and my mother should not have to go through this. But we did. We all did. They can no more help their sexuality then I can my genes, and all our lives were marred by it. And that makes me so sick.
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