Changing Attitudes

My friend Geraint has sent me a link to this interesting article in the Guardian.

Personally I've never been confused about my sexuality, I knew I "liked boys" from around the age of 7, but also knew that other people thought it was wrong so I had to hide it. From such an early age, when personality and inter-personal skills are still forming, I learned to hide my real self from everyone, thus stunting my ability to interact with other people. I was never ashamed of or felt guilty about my sexuality. I have never thought that it was wrong myself, but felt, to get by with as little hassle as possible, I had to hide who I really was. I had to hide it in every single action and word that I did or said just in case someone "figured it out." This is what led to my personal mental health issues, the strain of not feeling able to be myself.
Education and understanding in schools from an early age is needed with tough action on offending pupils AND parents. Faith schools need to be forced to comply too, if we can't scrap the outdated insidious institutions altogether. Regional youth groups need to be formed and funded for all different interests. Homosexuality needs to be normalised, instead of sensationalised in the media. We don't need newspapers effectively blackmailing celebrities to come out. We don't need sensational gay stories in soaps. Sexuality needs to be mostly incidental, not shocking.