Hi everyone.
I am a 30yo gay ex-scientology kid. I spent the first decade of my life running around sydney org (castlereagh st) in the 80's with my sister. At the time my father and brother and sister from my father's first marriage were in the SO and my mother on day staff. My half sister is still fully entrenched in the org, though is now off staff and concentrating her efforts on her OT levels, funded by my SP declared father. Even though my father has been ex-communicated since the 90's he still fully believes in Scientology and his goal is to get all of his kids up the bridge (whether we want to or not!). Carmel I am sure you would remember my family. I definitely remember your name from my days in the org.
I realised I was gay from a very young age. I remember going through Dianetics looking up homosexuality and reading that who I was, was an aberration according to LRH and everyone around me. It did not make me feel good and I quickly learned not to discuss it both in the auditing room and out. I managed to get through the main part of my teens without it being "handled."
It was only into my mid teenage years did I begin to become more comfortable and express my sexuality a little more. Unfortunately, my father (who I was living with at the time) did not look onto this as well as I hoped. As a result, I was asked by him to try things out with a woman or move out. I took the option of moving out by myself at the age of 16-17yo. this was a bit of a blessing, as I not longer had to go on course or have auditing (these were always a replacement for talking about our problems in our family, not to mention the bane of my life).
A number of years later, my sister in the SO started contact with me again and i basically told her I was gay. She responded with "you know that can be handled." Not wanting a confrontation and knowing how entrenched in scientology she was, I simple said "I know" and "I like who I am." When you are gay, that is who you are, and very few gay people, including myself, would want to be different in my opinion. Even if they had the choice of choosing to be straight or gay, the large majority in my opinion would still choose to be gay.
I have just come out of a 10year monogomous relationship (yes there are many gay relationships based on love not just sex) in which I kept very much to myself and used the opportunity to grow and sort out the problems associated with Scientology. I have recently begun to cultivate new friendships and relationships and having a bit of difficulty deciding when, how and possibly if I should broach the subject of my ex-scientology past. Obviously this is not a subject entirely unique to gay friendships/relationships but it would be nice to hear from guys that have experience from this angle as well as other viewpoints.
My family is very much dysfunctional because of scientology, none of us talk very often (even after numerous attempts to resurrect a "family"), and none offer emotional support so friendships would be a key area for me. I still have contact and support from my ex-partner who is aware of my history, so more of the same from other areas would be very nice. It would be very nice to be open and honest about it all, instead of feeling the need to hide it.
I would be very much interested in everyones experiences with "coming out" as an ex-scientologist
thanks
Dennis
I am a 30yo gay ex-scientology kid. I spent the first decade of my life running around sydney org (castlereagh st) in the 80's with my sister. At the time my father and brother and sister from my father's first marriage were in the SO and my mother on day staff. My half sister is still fully entrenched in the org, though is now off staff and concentrating her efforts on her OT levels, funded by my SP declared father. Even though my father has been ex-communicated since the 90's he still fully believes in Scientology and his goal is to get all of his kids up the bridge (whether we want to or not!). Carmel I am sure you would remember my family. I definitely remember your name from my days in the org.
I realised I was gay from a very young age. I remember going through Dianetics looking up homosexuality and reading that who I was, was an aberration according to LRH and everyone around me. It did not make me feel good and I quickly learned not to discuss it both in the auditing room and out. I managed to get through the main part of my teens without it being "handled."
It was only into my mid teenage years did I begin to become more comfortable and express my sexuality a little more. Unfortunately, my father (who I was living with at the time) did not look onto this as well as I hoped. As a result, I was asked by him to try things out with a woman or move out. I took the option of moving out by myself at the age of 16-17yo. this was a bit of a blessing, as I not longer had to go on course or have auditing (these were always a replacement for talking about our problems in our family, not to mention the bane of my life).
A number of years later, my sister in the SO started contact with me again and i basically told her I was gay. She responded with "you know that can be handled." Not wanting a confrontation and knowing how entrenched in scientology she was, I simple said "I know" and "I like who I am." When you are gay, that is who you are, and very few gay people, including myself, would want to be different in my opinion. Even if they had the choice of choosing to be straight or gay, the large majority in my opinion would still choose to be gay.
I have just come out of a 10year monogomous relationship (yes there are many gay relationships based on love not just sex) in which I kept very much to myself and used the opportunity to grow and sort out the problems associated with Scientology. I have recently begun to cultivate new friendships and relationships and having a bit of difficulty deciding when, how and possibly if I should broach the subject of my ex-scientology past. Obviously this is not a subject entirely unique to gay friendships/relationships but it would be nice to hear from guys that have experience from this angle as well as other viewpoints.
My family is very much dysfunctional because of scientology, none of us talk very often (even after numerous attempts to resurrect a "family"), and none offer emotional support so friendships would be a key area for me. I still have contact and support from my ex-partner who is aware of my history, so more of the same from other areas would be very nice. It would be very nice to be open and honest about it all, instead of feeling the need to hide it.
I would be very much interested in everyones experiences with "coming out" as an ex-scientologist
thanks
Dennis