When I was a kid, and I was odd, the default assumption was that I was odd, not that I was gay. Now when a kid is odd in a Greensburg, gay or straight, the default assumption is gay.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I'm not sure when I first knew that I was gay.
I didn't know if I was heterosexual or homosexual.
If 'gay' is not in your vocabulary, if being gay is not an option in your world, then you're far more likely to see your kid as anything but gay.
I knew that I was a gay boy fairly early; what was interesting to me was that my mother didn't know. She made me play baseball - I had no desire to do that. I said, 'Mom, I don't like direct sunlight, I don't like bugs, I don't like grass, and I'd rather be in the house playing with your fabric samples.'
I always knew I was gay. I always knew that somehow it would work out.
When I first started teaching at Berkeley in 1958, I could not announce that I was gay to anybody, though probably quite a few of my fellow teachers knew.
My son wasn't gay. No way.
I was born gay, just as I was born black.
I feel comfortable in the presence of oddity. Probably because I'm a little bit odd.
It's an interesting thing about being a 'fem.' People automatically assume that I'm straight.