Management committee perspective (02)
I think I'm really lucky. Pretty much everyone I know - including everybody I work with - knows that I'm gay and doesn't have a problem with it. It's never been a bar to my career, and I've hardly ever had any experience of homophobia either at work or in my social life.
That said, school wasn't a lot of fun - being gay was probably the worst thing in the world - one step below mass murderer. I never had the guts to come out at school for fear of being bullied even more than I was already. Although university was better, I'd only told a few close friends by then. It wasn't until after I'd graduated and started work that I summoned up the courage to come out properly.
The world is a different place now, I know, but I wouldn't
want the young people of today feeling the same sense of isolation that I
felt during those dark early years. So I've rejoined the management committee
of Pride Youth, in the hope that in some way the work that the group does
will make a difference in Swindon, and that anything that I can do to help
that along a bit, is one of the most fantastic things that I could ever do.
