Many years ago, and I’m talking decades, I was repeatedly asked by those close and not so close to me, ‘why don’t you have normal friends?’ I was defiant in my answers. Given I was a teenager at the time, psychological theories and the ‘grown-ups’ around me may have put my stance down to being rebellious, to p*** off the parents or, it’s just a phase. Not true. It was the foundation of who I was growing into and discovering what was important to me.

Coming Out Later in Life - my journey through Self-Discovery to find Self-Acceptance.

There’s a particular narrative that quietly circulates in some parts of the gay male community. It doesn’t always show up loudly or aggressively. More often, it appears in passing comments, in distancing, in discomfort.