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If someone's still closeted it can really get in the way of social intimacy. Not being able to get close to people when they're still in the closet All that anxiety may leak out in the form of your feeling more generally on edge around people, even if you're not particularly worried about being found out. Just holding such a big secret inside creates a huge amount of pressure.You may have to come up with a bunch of lies if someone casually asks you about your love life, and then need to keep track of them all for later. If you're living a double life you have to deceive people and cover your tracks.
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You try to consciously control your every gesture, or the tone of your voice, to hopefully come across as 'straight' enough. You worry that people can tell you're gay. Hiding your sexual orientation can add a ton of stress to every social encounter.A young person who's grown up hearing tons of negative messages about homosexuality could easily feel they were fundamentally flawed. At its core social anxiety can stem from shame and a sense that there's something wrong with you.This doesn't mean everyone who's gay goes through this, but it's not hard to speculate as to why a connection may be there: Some people believe there's a link between being gay and experiencing higher levels of social anxiety, particularly when someone is young and still in the closet. People more benignly leaving them out, not because they hate them, but because they assume the minority person has their own group, and their own stuff going on, and wouldn't want to hang out with them anyway.People consciously choosing not to include them in social activities, because they're intolerant, or even just uncomfortable with the unfamiliar.They may also be made fun of for being too effeminate or 'butch', even if they're not being specifically picked on for being gay. Note that even someone who's in the closet can still be abused indirectly, for example by hearing classmates, family members, and the media make homophobic remarks. The effects that can result from being ostracized and abused: Damaged self-confidence, increased nervousness around people, isolating yourself and missing out on social practice, a sense of alienation and not being able to relate to anyone, etc.When someone's in a discriminated-against minority group there are some general social problems they can run up against: I'll mention this first before getting to the issues that are more specific to being gay. With that covered, here are some social struggles gay people might have to deal with in their lives: The general interpersonal complications of being an oppressed minority More and more these days if someone is from a liberal, accepting environment they may come out as a teenager, or younger, with little incident and happily go on with their lives. It's a harmful stereotype that all LGBT people are damaged goods. I don't want to imply that social problems are an inescapable part of being gay.In any individual who's gay, and also socially awkward in some ways, I realize it's impossible to tell how much of their awkwardness is a complication of their being homosexual in a not-completely-accepting world, and how much they would have been like that anyway, because it's just in their personality to be a bit shy, or whatnot.This article sticks to things I know gay men and lesbians go through.
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However, each group's experience is different enough that I didn't want to carelessly lump them all together.