I didn’t fully come to terms with my homosexuality until was a few weeks into college, and it took years before I was comfortable coming out to other people, but when I was in secondary school I was in and out of the closet. Some days I’d say I find men attractive, other days I’d deny ever saying such things. This was mostly because I was confused and wasn’t sure if I liked males, but also because sometimes I was frightened by the thought of being gay.

Would you consider that your experience was positive or negative overall? Why?

Positive, I guess? If I had the balls to come out as gay at 15 or 16 and owned it I suppose most of the school would have had my back. People made jokes, but they mostly made jokes about me being a closet case. But here’s the thing about Irish secondary schools back then: you got made fun of for whatever reason, and there was no sacred cow. Everyone was made fun of, and if you took it in stride or gave back as much as you got, you’d make friends. Even if I was straight they would have slagged me over something else. When I learned how to take a joke and laughed at myself, the other kids started to like me. My guess is that most of the other kids knew I was gay, but understood I was struggling with it and never confronted me over it.

Do you feel like you missed out on certain things because you were gay or bi? If so, which things? (ex: dating, lack of friends because of bullying/not being able to relate/etc etc)

I’ve never been on any date in secondary school, simply because there was no openly gay kid in my school. I’ve had friends but I did struggle to socialise with the other kids because I’m an introvert. Me being the possibly gay kid in class didn’t have an effect on my ability to socialise.

How do you feel being gay/bi has impacted you as a person? (On a positive side for example, do you feel you became a more open minded and non judgemental person? On a negativa side, do you feel you became a more anxious person? Etc etc)

On a positive note, my homosexuality is still a conversation starter. On a negative note, people expect me to be a liberal who is empathetic to liberal or socialist causes, and I completely resent it. You’d think that me being gay would make me more open minded and less judgemental, but no. I'm pro-death penalty, I’m anti-immigration, I want to drop the T and I want to pull Ireland out of the EU and the UN. I used to be a bleeding heart liberal, but the events beginning in 2015 have caused me to wake up. My straight best friend is the only person who I’m completely honest with with regards to my political views, because he shares 90% of my views and on the rest we agree to disagree. And no, I’m not conservative or right wing, I’m more of an anybody-killer, like Barricade Garage.

Do you feel like it's important for you to have other gay friends or is it indifferent?

It would be nice to have another gay friend, but it’s not necessary. My best friend who is straight is the only friend I need. And I have friends from karate classes who I haven’t seen in a while but them being gay is unimportant to me. But I would like a boyfriend, but it’s not essential.