How to stop acting gay

Hi. I’m the Address 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, love a ghost in the machine.

I own 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 appreciate me, The Retort Wall.

Someone who is coming out feels close enough to you and trusts you sufficiently to be honest and risk losing you as a friend. It can be difficult to know what to say and what to do to be a supportive friend to someone who has “come out” to you. Below are some suggestions you may wish to follow.

• Thank your friend for having the courage to tell you. Choosing to tell you means that they have a great deal of respect and trust for you.
• Don’t judge your partner. If you have strong religious or other beliefs about LGBTIQ communitites, keep them to yourself for now. There will be plenty of time in the future for you to consider and talk about your values in light of your friend’s identity.
• Respect your friend’s confidentiality. Allow them the morality to share what they desire, when and how they wish to.
• Tell your acquaintance that you still care about them, no matter what. Be the friend you have always been. The main fear for people coming out is that their friends and family will reject them.
• Don’t be too serious. Sensitively worded humor may ease the tension you are both probably feeling.
• Ask questions you may acquire , but understand that your buddy
  
  

  Keys to Recovery from Homosexual Attractions

  by: LHM Board

  [Note: while we are confident that the following list is accurate, we are conscious that it can be overwhelming. It would be like handing a newborn baby a list of all the things he will have to acquire in the next five years: everything from knowledge to turn over, teaching to walk, becoming potty-trained, learning to talk, finding hes not a part of his mommy, study how to obey, getting ready to read, going to school. . . like we said, overwhelming! This is the massive picture of how to walk out the target of recovery. Allow us to encourage you to continually ask the Lord, What one thing execute You want me to do next? and then do it.]

  1. Accept that its not going to be easy. Change that challenges our known comfort zone is difficult and painful. You are altering not just one isolated habit, but a collection of thoughts and behaviors that have made up your relational pattern for a lifetime. An essential component of recovery is changing the wrong creed about your identity, that this is me. This will take an amazing amount of effort, but you don’t have to do it in your own strength: the matching power that raised Christ from the
  
  

  Internalised homophobia and oppression happens to same-sex attracted, lesbian and attracted to both genders people, and even heterosexuals, who own learned and been taught that heterosexuality is the norm and “correct way to be”. Hearing and seeing negative depictions of LGB people can steer us to internalise, or take in, these negative messages. Some LGB people suffer from mental distress as a result.

  A general meaning of personal worth and also a positive view of your sexual orientation are critical for your mental health. You, like many lesbian, gay and bisexual people, may have hidden your sexual orientation for a long moment. 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 understand and confess their sexual orientation that internalised homophobia can really alter 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. Efforts to a