Big Gay Closet

Mikey, the teenage hockey blogger from Minnesota, seems beyond a reasonable doubt a late-fortysomething man from a Minneapolis suburb who likes travel, food, was married and has sex profiles on two gay hookup sites. His deceit was discovered when he fell in love with Jimmy, a contributor to his blog, and his story started to unravel.

via Hockey Kid Mikey: Anatomy of a deception – Outsports.

The blog was featured on Big Gay Closet in April — you can find the original post here.

What would you take with you?

What things would you take if you thought you may never see your family again?

In the end, I took all my photographs. I left my coin collection because it was too heavy. I took old diaries.

The letter I wrote was in an envelope marked “Mom & Dad”.

I had cried rivers writing it, and every time I saw it, my eyes watered precariously.

Zipping up my bags, I took one last look around my childhood bedroom and wondered how long it would be before I saw it again. Would I ever see it again? I blinked back tears and breathed deeply.

I got into the car with my mother who would discover the letter hours later, on the bed I purposefully left unmade so it would attract her immediate attention. We drove four hours to the airport.

I boarded the plane only after I sent an apologetic email to my brother who didn’t know yet either.

Several whiskies later, I slept while the plane soared over the Atlantic. No more lies.

I was free and it hurt like hell.

i always assumed that jake would be 1 of the 1st people that id tell but i sorta planned on waitin till he got a lil older. after the josh thing settled down i still pretty much thought id wait wit jake cause at least i had 1 person to talk to n be honest wit. so jake n i were home alone 1 nite n just playin cod or somethin… im sure he was kickin my ass cause the kids great at those n practices way more than me … n he was talkin bout girls n said somethin like man mikey we need to find u a hot girl … n just outta the blue i said yea dont worry cause im gay. i mean i had thought how id say it to him but no like an idiot i just blurted it out. its sorta like hey u see the twins game last nite n then hey im gay … like how random. so neways i said yea im gay. n hes like what …. n so i said yea im gay i dont like girls … n hes like ahh really … n i said yep … n he said r u sure n how long have u know … so i told him n he pretty much said cool i still luv u … n lets get back to me killin u here.

via tellin jake | HockeyKidMN.

h/t to @MU_Gay_Prof

Yeah, alright, so my spellcheck is losing its mind right now, but it’s a cute, affirming story. Totally belongs here.

I had wondered how to tell my parents that I was gay. I had conversations with myself in my mind about how I was going to do it, what I would say, where I would tell them.  I had gone over so many scenarios that I had driven myself mad! I wrote my concerns over and over in a diary that I hid in my bedroom. What would they say, how would they feel, would they accept me for who I am?

Well things took a totally unexpected twist one night and if I could rewind time I probably — no definitely — would have done it differently!

There was an argument going on in the sitting room. I was in my bedroom, staying well out-of-the-way as it was between my mother and my brother. They have a very close relationship and i don’t recall them ever having such a serious disagreement!

My brother was very heated over something and eventually stormed out of the sitting room. He came up to my room, sat on the bed and told me what was happening.

His friend Mark wanted him to go to The George, a gay bar in the city. My brother had no problem with that and he had mentioned it to our Mam. Well she freaked out!

There was no way  he was going to a gay bar, why would he want to go there, there will be dirty old men crawling all over him, it wouldn’t be a good environment to be in, etc, etc. He really wanted to be supportive to his friend and even though he was 18, an adult and legally allowed to drink, he wanted Mam to understand why he was doing this. He asked me to speak to Mam and try to explain to her.

I headed down to the sitting room, Mam was sitting watching TV. I asked her why she had a problem with Bob going to the George. She told me that she didn’t want gay old men leaching all over him. I tried to explain that it wasn’t like that, that it was just like any other pub except with a gay twist, that they weren’t going to see him as fresh meat! So we started arguing about it. Then the unexpected happened.

“Why do you care? You’re not gay, are you?”

I could tell by her face that as soon as she said those words, she knew what the answer was.

I answered her with silence, just looking at her.

Damn it, it wasn’t meant to happen this way, in the middle of an argument over my brother! I sat there looking at my mother with tears streaming down her face, not knowing what to say. Everything that I had planned in my head had just been thrown out of the window in a split second.

I got up, went outside for a cigarette and left my mother in tears in the sitting room wondering what in the hell had just happened.

That's cool.

Around the time I began my coming out process, one of my teenaged brother’s friends confided in him, telling him that he was gay. When I asked how he felt about that he replied, ” he’s still the same Mark, still the same person!”.

I have never been prouder of my brother. I work with teenagers, and I know how hurtful they can be to each other, how easily the “gay” taunt is used without thought or feeling. Hell they’re teens, that’s the way they are!

I had only told one close friend at this point and I wasn’t ready to tell my family but sometimes you have no control over these things.

A couple of weeks later my brother and I were walking up to the local pub when he turned to me and said, “Mark said he thinks you’re gay.”

Stunned, I just replied ” I am.”

“That’s cool.”

Keeire’s little brother is still pretty cool.