Coming from the tiny village of Rooskey in the famed ’No’ county of Roscommon, it was scary being an outsider. I remember the marriage referendum being made into a class discussion in school and the embarrassment I felt hearing the stifled laughs at the mention of the word ‘gay’. I remember how I felt at a public speaking competition when a friend of mine spoke against marriage equality. I wasn’t brave enough to speak in favour.
I came out to my close friends at 16 but the exhausting and terrifying process of coming out again and again was too much. I wasn’t ready to be out to the world. I packed that emotional baggage and decided to wait until I was in college.