How to stop being gay

Hi. I’m the Reply Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online society, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, appreciate a ghost in the machine.

I hold some human assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to analyze tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just love me, The Reply Wall.

It is dangerous to be different, and certain kinds of difference are especially risky. Race, disability, and sexuality are among the many ways people are socially marked that can make them vulnerable. The museum recently collected materials to document gay-conversion therapy (also called "reparative therapy")—and these objects allow curators like myself to explore how true people experience these risks. With the help of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., Garrard Conley gave us the workbook he used in 2004 at a now defunct religious gay-conversion camp in Tennessee, called "Love in Action." We also received materials from John Smid, who was camp director. Conley's memoir of his time there, Boy Erased, chronicles how the camp's conversion therapy followed the idea that being gay was an addiction that could be treated with methods similar to those for abating drug, alcohol, gambling, and other addictions. While there, Conley spiraled into depression and suicidal thoughts. Conley eventually escaped. Smid eventually left Love in Action and married a man.

In the United States, responses to gay, queer, queer, lesbian, fluid, transsexual, and gender non-conforming

Am I gay? Are you born gay? Can you interrupt being gay?

Am I gay?

Many people feel attracted to people of the same sex, and wonder whether this means that they are gay. For some people these feelings can be very intense and alienating. Some people who ask themselves the doubt ‘am I gay?’ are indeed gay, and go on to have gay sexual relationships. But other people find that these feelings change over time.

Some people are bisexual, meaning they are attracted to both men and women, and have relationships with both. Some people are not attracted...

Want to see the repose of this article?

Would you like to see the lie down of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?

Useful related articles
Video and multimedia references
Statistical information and reference material
Glossary of terms
Key Facts and figures
Akin assignments
Resource material and websites

Internalised homophobia and oppression happens to gay, lesbian and bisexual people, and even heterosexuals, who have learned and been taught that heterosexuality is the norm and “correct way to be”. Hearing and seeing negative depictions of LGB people can lead us to internalise, or receive in, these negative messages. Some LGB people endure from mental distress as a result.

A general perception of personal worth and also a positive view of your sexual orientation are critical for your mental health. You, love many lesbian, gay and bisexual people, may hold hidden your sexual orientation for a long age. Research carried out in Northern Ireland into the needs of young LGBT people in 2003 revealed that the average age for men to realise their sexual orientation was 12, yet the average age they actually confided in someone was 17. It is during these formative years when people are coming to know and acknowledge their sexual orientation that internalised homophobia can really affect a person.

Internalised homophobia manifests itself in varying ways that can be linked to mental health. Examples include:

01. Denial of your sexual orientation to yourself and others.

02. Attempts to a