Yes, I have. However, not as early in life as you did. I noticed I was attracted to men in my early 20s. Shortly after a gay friend asked me for . I might have did it if he was attractive, but he was not. Religion kept me down for many years and I'm glad I'm free of it now. I know there no god.

I was sent to an all boys boarding school, where the worst thing you could possibly be was 'queer.' Without even doing anything gay myself, I got branded one and ostracised because, on my first night there, one of the others had tried to get into my bed and we'd been caught. It took over 6 months for me to get my reputation back and fall back into favour.

The school had its 'gay boys' and we all avoided them. Funnily enough, they were the first to go out and get girls pregnant upon leaving. I don't think they were gay so much as highly sexed and willing to take the only outlet available.

Years later, at a school reunion, it all came out as to who'd been sucking who. Turns out I was one of the few there who hadn't been sexually active. I fell under the protection of one of the 'harder' kids. He wouldn't lay a finger on me because I was a friend, and if anyone else had touched me, he'd probably have broken their nose.

I've never hated the idea of sex with women. But I've always fantasised about sex with men (and boys my own age, when I was younger.) For years, I followed the understanding that if you can possibly be content as a practising heterosexual, you had a duty to be one. I had a few same sex experiences, all of which ended badly. A very drunken fumble with a close friend and flatmate led to him moving back in with his mother the following day. The friendship never really recovered. I made a gay crush a little too obvious to my Catholic mother once. "I'm not having any of that shit under my roof" was her response. She had no problem with me having sex with my first girlfriend under that same roof.

School was up to 1984, the incident with the flatmate somewhere between 1988 and 1990, and the "none of that shit" thing with my mother about 1994. Times were different, the world was much more homophobic, and we didn't have the Internet to discover queer politics and to connect with others like us. I could have gone to prison over the flatmate: he was 19 and I'd just turned 21. The age of consent between males in the UK was 21 at the time (16 for mixed sex couples and, as I undersstand it, no specific legal limit for two women.)

As a guy who used to have long hair, I was told by total strangers that I was going to burn in a lake of fire, just for being a guy with long hair. Needless to say I didn't (still don't) feel comfortable asking religious people about sexual orientation.

Yep. Exact same, but from the perspective of a transgender mtf individual.

I went to the funeral of a friend who died in the "second wave" AIDS crisis in the 80s. The preacher--his cousin--had no trouble saying my friend was in Hell, but we shouldn't feel bad about it. I'm thinking this was the first major chunk out of my religious armor.

I think this could definitely be true for a lot of LGBTQ+ people especially when considering how hypocritical Christians are toward them. We're told that Jesus was all about love and kindness and forgiveness and blah blah blah but, suddenly, if you're non-hetero, you're going straight to hell. That contradiction is honestly what led me away from religion. My uncle was gay and loved by many but, as soon as he got sick with AIDS, he lost everyone but his closest family. I could blame it on the fact it was the 80's, but a lot still hasn't changed since then.

yes, it did. However it was later in life for me. However, I considermyself bi.

It was reversed for me. I lost my faith in high school, but didn’t really realize I was bisexual until I was in college. I was a bit of a late bloomer in all things sexual.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but what is the difference between the G and the Q in LGBTQ? I am not bring flippant. I just don't know. And what's the + ?

My best friend from high school has a sister that is gay. It actually confuses me because both the sister and my friend are fundementalist Christians.

From what I've been told, the family deals with Laura (the sister) being gay by "praying". I'm not sure if they're praying that she sees the light and become hetero, or praying that God overlooks the sin. I'm not sure how Laura resolves the contradiction and personally don't really care to know.

Personally, I find the entire thing stupid. Laura is the same person she was before finding her partner, and sexuality should not matter.

The same as you though I'm straight. no one could come up with satisfactory answers apart from "God did it" and that isn't an answer.