Author Matt Cain grew up in the 1980s and his parents were afraid of what being a gay man meant for their son’s future.
‘Well, I’m one of those people who is obviously different. I could never pass as straight. So, people used to tell me I was gay before I even knew what it was…’
‘From the age of about five or six onwards, other people would remark on my girliness. They would say things like, ‘He sounds like a girl, he runs like a girl, he talks like a girl. He’s into girls’ things. He plays with girls’ things.’
I can say all this now with a smile on my face, without it being traumatic, because I’ve had a lot of therapy and I’m now 43. But it was horrendous at the time!’
Read Matt’s full story in this exclusive extract from Coming Out Stories, a collection of real-life stories from LGBTQ+ people.