Start a Discussion Find support & help more people

25-34_f_w_h1_f3

Please do not share your identity and personal details. We cannot guarantee that all users of this site can be trusted. Be cautious when communicating with others on the site.

Cancel

So sick of people saying we don't exist!


A+ A-

I've had so many conversations with people refusing to believe that homosexuality exists largely in the Middle East because they don't see it in public.

.



Cancel
  • 17-24_f_b_h1_f2

    Please do not share your identity and personal details. We cannot guarantee that all users of this site can be trusted. Be cautious when communicating with others on the site.

    Cancel

    skyflake
    Experience

    when i came out to my friends and (unwillingly) to my family, i was abandoned that i FELT like i didn't exist. it's convenient for some people to say we don't exist because they don't want us to. just like i don't exist today to my family and what i considered to be my closest friends. this is worse than denial. this is oppression and betrayal. we have a long fight ahead of us.

    This was helpful! Flag
  • 12-16_m_b_h3_f4

    Please do not share your identity and personal details. We cannot guarantee that all users of this site can be trusted. Be cautious when communicating with others on the site.

    Cancel

    kuwaitilove
    Experience

    skyflake, I can totally relate! The only person I came out to was my childhood friend and it has cost me that friendship. I think for many people who come out in this region the experience will be accompanied by loneliness and disrespect.

    This was helpful! Flag
  • 25-34_f_b_h2_f3

    Please do not share your identity and personal details. We cannot guarantee that all users of this site can be trusted. Be cautious when communicating with others on the site.

    Cancel

    Recently participated in these topics:

    Naima
    Comment

    The line between hate and love is very thin. Those people can learn to love you just as quick as they judged and hated you. The only way you can do it is to stop expecting and feeling that by keeping a secret you are lonely, think of it as you are saving them from being lonely. Judging quickly is a very lonely feeling take it from a straight person who had no idea what to feel about homosexuality besides associating it with porn or taboo. Up until I found out my sibling was homosexual, I thought it fine to treat feminine guys like shit in high school- and call masculine girls dikes as well. I demonstrated my stupidity. Little did I know that I was refraining myself from growing.

    I think everyone is like me. We all reach a point in our lives where we wonder about the value and worth of that funny heavy feeling after having spent several minutes or hours putting someone down either to their face or through our thoughts. The difference is whether we brush the thought away or do something about it. Unfortunately in the Middle East people feel no guilt in pretending to be something they are not. In fact, we master it. I mean look at politics itself. Look at the celebrities. We do an amazing job "making up" things- we are the best at make-up too :) You have to remember that next time someone makes you feel unusual about being homosexual! Why would you want to share something so beautiful, real and intimate about yourself with an unreal, fake world? Do not challenge weak minds that cost you your friendship or family. Once you prove you are an amazing wonderful person regardless of your sexuality, they will find you mysterious and not weak or confused. Do not murder your individuality for the sake of loneliness. If you are not lonely sometimes you have to explain yourself too much as well, and that can also alter your journey in finding out who you are. There's a lot more to know about yourself. Unless you see that someone is capable of reading between the lines of any story, contemplating the truth about every detail in life, respecting human sexuality and biology-- don't bother acknowledging your loneliness as loneliness. Live with yourself with joy, there's a lot more you can learn about yourself through those that accept you even if they live miles away and look like brown avatars.

    This was helpful! Flag
  • Default-avatar

    Please do not share your identity and personal details. We cannot guarantee that all users of this site can be trusted. Be cautious when communicating with others on the site.

    Cancel

    Peter
    Comment

    There is a possibility that there is a societal connection to homosexuality being more or less widespread. If one were to take Ancient Greece as an example, where in many Greek societies homosexuality was considered the cultural norm, and heterosexuality was considered incidental in its necessity for childbearing.

    This is not to say that the claims that homosexuality are nonexistent or are entirely sociological in nature have any credibility, mind you, but it may have more of an effect than simply the "closeted and open" distinction (though I do not wish to imply any less significance so that effect).

    This is an issue that is debated very hotly here in the west, usually because the question of whether or not there is a biological nature to homosexuality (as opposed to it simply being a chosen lifestyle as some would claim) reaches into so many facets of the nature of homosexuality and its causes, whether biological, psychological, sociological or environmental (or a combination thereof, as I surmise based on the extremely complicated nature of human sexuality).

    I have no doubt that homosexuality is much more widespread in the middle east than many would like to let on or than is possible to estimate accurately due entirely to people being in the closet because of the higher societal repercussions. That said, I somehow suspect it may have actually lower rates than, say, my home state of California. I can't really test this hypothesis, so for now it's merely a suspicion.

    • 17-24_m_w_h1_f3

      Please do not share your identity and personal details. We cannot guarantee that all users of this site can be trusted. Be cautious when communicating with others on the site.

      Cancel

      Recently participated in these topics:

      Justthat
      Comment

      Actually, the whole Ancient Greece argument theory of gay-support is just bogus. In reality, the Ancient Greek culture encouraged and sanctified pederasty which is a sexual relationship between an older man and young teen. Pederasy is actually an ancient form of pedophilia which is shunned in Western world despite the existence of small pro-pedohilia/pederasty organizations like NAMBLA. The whole Ancient Greece actually weakens the Gay-morality debate since it equates it with pedophilia.
      I think in the last census, the UN estimated that in every population 5-10% of the people belong to the LGBT community, closeted or not. There's not actually any convincing evidence that shows the sociological effects on sexual orientation; the society mostly just affects people's paraphilias (fetishes,...). I think I heard that the most likely determinant of human sexual orientation is a complex combination of genetic and uteral factors. Some reports that suggest the predominance of genetic and uteral factors are the ones done on identical twins and post-war births (apparently, stressed moms make gay kids :P)

      This was helpful! Flag
    This was helpful! Flag
  • Default-avatar

    Please do not share your identity and personal details. We cannot guarantee that all users of this site can be trusted. Be cautious when communicating with others on the site.

    Cancel

    Nadir616
    Comment

    I agree with Peter all the way. Homosexuality was always existed in human history, it exists nowadays, and will keep existing until the world ends (if it ends, anyway). To negate that it exists is to negate a quintesential part of human history and culture, as it always has been present (to some degree or another) in the life of human beings. How many famous philosophers, artists, writers, or even religious scholars; were homosexual or bisexual? Probably more than we can count of. And they all helped to the development of humanity in one way or another. To say that they were "perverts", "misguided" or "unnatural" is a very insult to their memory and the legacy that they left us on this world.

    Reply to Nadir616
    This was helpful! Flag
  • 25-34_m_b_h1_f1

    Please do not share your identity and personal details. We cannot guarantee that all users of this site can be trusted. Be cautious when communicating with others on the site.

    Cancel

    Recently participated in these topics:

    lalithmuthali
    Comment

    It's easier to deal with something that doesn't exist. It's human nature, we all do it. We are always in denial when we don't agree with something. I am pretty sure that a lot of you told yourselves that you weren't gay/lesbian at least one time in your life and tried to convince yourself that you weren't until reality smacked you in your face.

    Of course, when people in power say this, it creates real problem. In some instances, a deadly one.

    Reply to lalithmuthali
    This was helpful! Flag
  • 17-24_m_w_h3_f1

    Please do not share your identity and personal details. We cannot guarantee that all users of this site can be trusted. Be cautious when communicating with others on the site.

    Cancel

    ana0insan
    Experience

    that's okay ,, we can't see the electricity or the air , but we can see their effects ..
    just be effective and they will see you , even they believe in you or not :))

    Reply to ana0insan
    This was helpful! Flag

Hall of Fame