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Showing posts with the label Harassment

No Pride: End of the Year Special

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Yeah, no, nothing special really. Just the usual post, rant, musing, or what have you. For anyone who might not know who I am or what I'm about , let me try and do my best. I've always had a passion for writing. I used to keep journals when I was younger and writing has become very cathartic for me. Suffering from General Anxiety Disorder and Severe Depression is no picnic, but writing helps me, a lot. This doesn't make me Mark Twain or Stephen King. I do not suffer from delusions of grandeur. I can only hope, one day, No Pride or any other of my projects , might actually become something bigger and I can actually say I'm a blogger or writer, who gets paid for the things I create. Also, I ramble. I don't even try to hide this by saying, "Well, sometimes I ramble.", no. I ramble . A lot. I try to edit posts and everything I write, to the best of my ability, but I'm no editor, either. To anyone who came here expecting a riveting thesis (more o...

A Lifetime of Pain and Suffering

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One of the most difficult things about writing for, "No Pride", is the amount of bullying, harassment, and discrimination I have to revisit. First, there's the direct. Second, there's the indirect. Third, there is all the internal aftershock like pings I feel when talking about my experience with being openly gay. I've never been afforded a "safe space". I've lived my entire life in areas largely known to be openly and proudly homophobic. As far as direct effects, I'd have to count all the times I've been called a homophobic slur. All the times I've been told to move or get out of town. All the times I've been threatened with physical violence. All the times I've been made to feel uncomfortable in the workplace, with sexual comments, innuendoes, or jokes made at my expense. I've come to understand, I'll always be the odd man out. It doesn't make things better, though. Being pointed out for being gay ...

The Process of Progress

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The LGBTQ Community suffers from a true lack of awareness. As I was reading  this  article, it became very clear to me. In the last year, I have read two different articles talking about the who, what, where, when, and why of gay men's loneliness and its effects. The Epidemic of Gay Loneliness ; by Michael Hobbes Gay loneliness is real but, "bitchy, toxic" culture isn't the full story ; by Ben Miller I came across both of these articles through Reddit. The response to both of these articles prompted Michael Hobbes to do an AMA  on Reddit shortly after his article was published. This is all pure context for the issue at hand.  Mr. Hobbes' friend, Jeremy, is described as being completely driven by crystal meth, cocaine, and the sex parties he would attend. Drug usage is not part of my routine, at all. I live in the South, a place often made fun of due to the rampant crystal meth addiction and I can honestly say, I've never used it.  Multiple s...

Ageism

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Edited: 02-27-2018: Grammatically and visually _________________________________________________________________________________ Of course, the first thing most people will think about when it comes to age is how it affects your sexual attraction. "You're too old.", "Daddy issues", "Old Queen", the whole "fetishism" of older gay men, "Gay men die when they turn 30.", the list goes on and I'm sure we're aware age does play a huge role in the gay community.  While this is definitely a topic of discussion, in my experience, the worst case of ageism I have ever experienced is being denied help and support when I was in need.  Last year, my fight against severe anxiety and depression was extremely difficult. Difficult enough to the point where I was searching for answers from any person willing to listen. At the time, I didn't have a computer as a resource and access to the internet was constantly in limb...

Seek Help

When I first created this blog project, I didn't really know how to go about promoting it. It has adult content, so I can't publicly post it on my Google+ profile and I don't like the idea of openly promoting through Twitter because that account is connected to Facebook and therefore, my family.  One of the main reasons I started this project, is I'm openly gay but, not in an expected manner. Living in Alabama with my conservative family poses threats. The threat of a very uncomfortable situation, unnecessary anger, disdain, the creation of a toxic environment, bullying, harassment, estrangement, and even violence. Yes, it is that bad in the area I live in. I'll get into that at some point, I'm sure.  In the end, it isn't really worth it to promote in that manner. I turned to the last avenue I could think of, Reddit. I have a very strange relationship with Reddit, as documented on my other blog, " @ntisocial ". However, the results of doin...

Getting Smaller

Edited December 12th, 2018: Grammatically and Readability _________________________________________________________________________________ One reason I started, No Pride, is because I don't feel like the LGBTQ community is really a community. If it is, I'm not a part of it in a way I would like to be. Being openly gay in Alabama is pretty much what most people would imagine it to be. In large part, it is the reason I now choose to stay out of the local workforce, I don't have a lot of close friends, and my family just doesn't seem to understand what I'm going through, regardless of what they know to be true. Even more difficult, is how rare it is to come across someone who also identifies as LGBTQ. The loneliness, on top of the sexual repression, on top of the alienation, on top of the bullying and harassment is enough to drive anyone crazy. "They" should be proud of themselves, I currently suffer from severe anxiety and depression, which, I'm not a...