While recognizing their homosexual feelings, these individuals reject the feelings and, despite the low odds of success, may even seek to change their sexual orientation (Shidlo et al., 2001). However, such individuals find it difficult, if not impossible, to naturalize their same-sex feelings and attractions. These people have experienced homosexual self-awareness, may have acted on their feelings, and may have even once identified as gay or lesbian. Others may come out to people they have met in the gay community while keeping their gay identity separate from the rest of their lives.Īnother homosexual identity is the non-gay-identified individual. A gay person may choose to come out to family or intimate acquaintances. In other words, defining oneself as gay usually requires some measure of self-acceptance. To be gay, in contrast to being homosexually self-aware, is to claim a normative identity. Individuals who are either consciously prepared to act on their homoerotic feelings or to reveal a homosexual identity to others usually define themselves as gay or lesbian. For example, a religious, homosexually self-aware man may choose a celibate life to avoid what, for him, would be the problematic integration of his religious and sexual identities.
While homosexually self-aware people might consider accepting and integrating these feelings into their public persona, acceptance is not a pre-determined outcome. Individuals to whom this happens can acknowledge some aspect of their homosexuality to themselves. If and when same-sex feelings and attractions can no longer be kept out of consciousness, the individual becomes homosexually self-aware. Consequently, these feelings must be dissociated from the self and hidden from others. Their homosexuality is so unacceptable that it must be kept out of conscious awareness and cannot be integrated into their public persona. Hiding activities learned in childhood often persist into young adulthood, middle age and even senescence, leading many gay people to conceal important aspects of themselves.Ĭloseted individuals frequently cannot acknowledge to themselves, let alone to others, their homoerotic feelings, attractions and fantasies. Antihomosexual attitudes include homophobia (Weinberg, 1972), heterosexism (Herek, 1984), moral condemnations of homosexuality (Drescher, 1998) and antigay violence (Herek and Berrill, 1992). On the contrary, beginning in childhood-and distinguishing them from racial and ethnic minorities-gay people are often subjected to the antihomosexual attitudes of their own families and communities (Drescher et al., 2004). Children who grow up to be gay rarely receive family support in dealing with antihomosexual prejudices. In the developmental histories of gay men and women, periods of difficulty in acknowledging their homosexuality, either to themselves or to others, are often reported. Clinical experience with gay patients reveals hiding and revealing behaviors to be psychologically complex. Revealing one's homosexuality is referred to as coming out.
“But now I understand it, because my parents taught me.In the jargon of contemporary homosexual culture, those who hide their sexual identities are referred to as either closeted or said to be in the closet.
Honestly, in my head, I was like: ‘What the heck is this dude talking about?’ “Let me clarify something: I was only five years old, okay. And I do remember when I was young, I did a gay video,” he added. “Like, I’m glad that my parents taught me that everybody can live their life. He then opened up about the video from 2013, saying: “I feel like the people who don’t like gay people and everything else-it’s probably because they didn’t learn when they were young. Kids React star Lucas Daniel Vazquez explains his 2013 comments “Is this a try not to cry challenge, because if it was, I would’ve lost immediately,” he continued, smiling through his tears.
Watch Kids React star Lucas Daniel Vazquez respond to Andi Mack: When he saw the show’s character Cyrus Goodman reveal his sexuality, Lucas said: “Ooh, wowsers, those waterworks are starting to come.”Īs Lucas brushed his tears away, he added: “I hate when people that are gay and lesbian… say that they’re different-they’re not really different.”