Coming Out and homelessness
Coming out for lots of people today is a very positive experience and nothing changes for them in terms of their housing security. For some however, like me in 2007, it changed everything. In the lead up to me coming out, I put a number of things in place to ensure housing security for my two children, and of course their mother, who assumed primary care for them once I left the marriage and the family home. My choice to leave them virtually everything to maintain their security actually led to me being homeless for a short while in late 2007 to early 2008. The circumstances around why this happened to me are detailed in "My Story", however it actually taught me to value happiness over possessions, and it's been the best life lesson I think I have ever learnt. For me, my happiness comes from within, not from material possessions, or in particular money itself. Sure you need money, but I am no longer driven by it to be happy. I find happiness by what I do in life itself and what I have, not the desire of what I don't have or wish for. I stumbled across a charity in 2023 that is very close to my heart, because of what it is all about. Open Doors Youth Service provides a service to youth who have come out and as a result found themselves homeless. One of my greatest fears related to me coming out as a teenager in the early 1980's was homelessness. Ironically this still happened to me in 2007 at age 39, but as I look back on that chapter in my life, I am so much happier because of the life lessons that taught me around what makes me happy and what doesn't. The buttons below will take you to the full version of "My Story" and also Open Doors Youth Service. With Open Doors Youth Service, make sure you end up with the one servicing LGBTIQAP+ youth, and not the one with a similar name.
Comments