Ed Fitzgerald: 'LGBT+ resources would have spared me a lot of pain' 

The best way to fight ignorance is through information; if information is stifled, it won't get rid of LGBTQ+ youth... it will just drive us into hiding and unsafe surroundings, writes Ed Fitzgerald

IE/THE ECHO 07/07/2023.

When I was growing up, I knew that I was different. What that difference was, I didn't truly know. I knew that I didn't gravitate towards boys and felt safer among girls. I preferred the more reasonable and sensitive nature that is culturally inherent to Irish women from a young age. It's weird, but now I understand it to have been about self-preservation. I remember comments being passed about me long before I knew who I was. People supposed what it was that I would be.

When I was young, being gay was treated almost as though you were some sort of creature. A creature to be avoided if possible and quietly admonished. Some concern was voiced for me by the local GAA coach that I did not join the sports team; it wasn't good for me, apparently, to not keep the company of boys and do boyish things. I do not think there was harm in it; in his own way, he thought he was preparing me for the world, and he was entirely kind.