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| . . . Social Life - gay & lesbian |
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Gay and Lesbian issues
For some gay people, going to college presents the best opportunity to 'out' themselves - they are establishing new friendships and moving away from home, which makes it easier to present themselves as they are. New friends and acquaintances have no previous image of them, which they feel they have to live up to. For others, it is harder still to come out at college when they are feeling insecure - the new surroundings and lifestyle adding to their insecurity and sense of wanting to belong, to be accepted. This isolation and feelings of low self esteem can affect their relationships and studies. For others, going to college is a time of sexual experiments and the first same sex relationships, it proves to be a time when they start questioning their feelings and their identity.
Some gay people say they knew they were different, from as young as five or six, from the heterosexual images commonly surrounding growing youngsters in books, films and life. Some research has suggested that our sexuality is determined by the age of 12 or 13, or 16 at the latest. Some people do not realise - or may be unwilling to accept - that they are gay until later in life. Social pressures and surroundings can have a great effect on sexual behaviour - so, a gay male or female may suppress their feelings through fear, even taking girlfriends/boyfriends (or marrying and having children).
Society still tends to assume that everyone is, or wants to be, heterosexual. Some people believe that gay people can be persuaded to be straight.
Conversely, more experimentation takes place in same-sex environments, as in prison, boarding schools and possibly colleges!
Meet new people to go clubbing/drinking with in our Social Life discussion forum
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