Homophobia
I experienced extreme homophobia at times, due to my “obviousness” as a somewhat effeminate gay man. Particularly in the mid-1960s when it was illegal to be gay and being homosexual was still regarded as a psychiatric illness.
At school, in the playground, I was punched in the head, kicked whilst down on the playground bitumen, spat and pissed on. Then other kids outside of school found out. At one point a student travelled out of their way by 2 kilometres just to punch me in the face before school.
I was going to attend the 1978 first gay Mardi Gras, but got scared at the last minute. At no point during that time did the LGBITQ community trust the police, who themselves had either been covertly bashing or luring gay men to their deaths.
So, yes, it was a trying time in which to come out.
As if that wasn’t troublesome enough, then in the 1980s HIV/AIDS descended on the world further excommunicating those perceived to be openly and wittingly transmitting this diabolical illness. This, in turn, made any inroads into acceptance very difficult and to my mind set back the gay cause by another 8–10 years.
I always found it oddly funny that people in the 1990s and early 2000s were happy to queue to watch the Mardi Gras, yet would never openly support gay people’s rights in any other context.
Still, I am happy to say that we have almost reached a place I am happy to say is a better one. Gaining legal gay marriage status was something, as a 61 y ear old, I never thought I would live to see!
Yet, somehow there persists somewhat ‘supported’ discriminatory attitudes by fanatical religious right-wing conservatives, even in 2018. They vent their attitudes on social media. They need to be called out for what they are doing, which is discrimination of a legally allowed group of citizens. We have every right to love and be accepted and loved for who we are:
Simply. Human beings…just like them.

