Homophobia causes exclusion and loneliness even for straight people

Aged 19, the number of Sundays where I felt the need to walk out during mass are few and far between. So when the moment arose, I was left with a drumming heartbeat.

As it stands, I’m straight. But my disgust over the disapproval towards the gay community has come from as far back as my first decade.

Since I didn’t display the usual interests common to young Irish males, I was incessantly branded as ‘gay’, and when my years grew less tender, a ‘queer’ and a ‘faggot’, to list a few.