Hiding Who You Are
With the rise of reality TV and instant celebrity, it might sound an odd thing that people are hiding who they are. Now obviously, there are times where a person wants to be private and that of course is a good and psychologically healthy thing to do as well. But, there are people who feel that they have to hide who they are, even though they are doing nothing wrong.
Pride London has conducted a survey of 1000+ people in the LGBT community 74% felt that they had to hide their sexual orientation or sexual identity. That is a huge number of people who are hiding who they are. The implications of this cannot be overestimated. For the majority of straight individuals, there is no need to hide their sexual orientation. As a straight, but LGBT friendly psychotherapist, I have heard harrowing tales of the difficulties that people in this community had to endure simply to be who they are.
With so much talk at the moment about identity because of the In Out Referendum in the UK, I ask you to take a moment and consider that in a free society, all people have the right to be what they are. I very much hope the day will come when the idea of hiding one’s sexuality or sexual orientation will be a long distant memory, and that we as a society can learn to accept people based on common human principles.