Are you sure he was not making himself available for the rest of the Team?

Actually, the poor wording of this question, "Do YOU need to come out", could be taken as suggesting that we are all bent. About 97% of us are normal, statistically, so once again we have a pointless question from Nathan who, if he really must know the answer, should be canvassing actual homosexuals. How the hell would we know what homos and lesbians feel they need to do!

Josephus,

That was a bit cruel.

Unfortunately the short answer to that question is "Yes".

Many young people struggle with their sexuality and 'fitting in'. I think it was Carl Jung who claimed that 60% of the population was bi-sexual but most didn't act on their feelings due to social and family pressure. This leads to feelings of loneliness and isolation. That coupled with the ridicule, snide comments and aggression directed to them (as overwhelmingly evidenced by posters to this very blog) is a massive contributor to mental health issues and even suicide.

So, if a young person in these circumstances sees a prominent figure openly confirming that they too are gay, it offers a massive amount of support to them.

Indeed, what one's sexuality is is really only a private matter, but when it is viewed and treated with such hostility as seen here, prominent, public figures must continue to out themselves.

What a pity the need to explain that in 2021 still exists.

I came out a few years back.

I guess I always knew or suspected that I was left-handed. But I hide it from myself for a long time and certainly hide it from family and friends. When I was a pre-teen I usually favoured my left but everyone just put that down to youthful experimenting, just like boys playing with dolls or girls playing footy.

But on reaching puberty, society was less forgiving. So I started devising ways to hide my problem. I had long since learned to write righthanded but occasionally feigned an injury to my right to allow me to use my left. Thankfully some brave souls like Rod Laver and Alan Border paved the way to allow others to play sport lefthanded.

I found it hard to hide my problem from my wife. Even though I kept telling myself I'd just been born this way, I knew in my heart that, if I so decided, I could live in a rightie world.

But it got to the point where I just couldn't sustain it any longer. So I gathered (with my lefthand) my courage and decided to break the news. My parents took it the hardest, wondering where they'd gone wrong. My wife was relieved that my using my lefthand to pleasure her wasn't just some fetishism but hoped that the affliction wasn't hereditary.

The world remains fraught for me but I can now sign documents with my correct hand and visit the lefthand shop without the need for a disguise.

It'd be so much easier if I was just gay.

Well I've been Gay most of my life. I've always tried to look on the bright side of life irrespective of how bad things were or are. I think happiness is a state of mind we all seek, and trying to be Gay, notwithstanding how bleak things are, is far superior than being in a prolonged melancholic state.

The use of the adjective 'Gay' by homosexuals does exasperate me somewhat, almost as if they've high-jacked the word for their own use. Still, I can't see any real harm in it I guess, after all many words in our vernacular these days have been used and misused by us all, in recent times?

When I first joined the coppers (1968 - after my six years in the military), I was stationed at 4 Div. in the city, and on every 2300h - 0700h shift one of our mandatory regular patrols was in the truck slowly sweeping through all of the city's parks rounding up homosexual individuals loitering in and about public toilets. Some people have asked me why not lesbians as well? Lesbianism was never a crime, only male homosexual behaviour.

Today of course homosexuality has been decriminalised. A good or bad thing? Who knows? Only history will answer that for us.One thing I will state absolutely - This loathsome practice many ethnic thugs like to engage upon in certain areas in SW Sydney; 'Gay bashing' is totally abhorrent to me! The full force of the law should be implemented upon these bully-boys and girls; Including mandatory gaol sentences.