Identity policing, stereotype fences and good friends

I've been having a ponder about things I value in many of my good friends – both online and in RL. And one of the main things is my not having to navigate the Stereotype Fences.

I often feel pressurised to be someone I'm not, to act a way I am not, to conform either to what straightness tells me I should be or to conform to what I'm supposed to be to be a “real” gay man.

And it's tiresome and tiring. I hate editing myself in case something I said/did was just “too gay.” And I hate checking myself because something I said/did comes off as “straight emulation.”

I hate that there are so many rules to just being.

Which is where I come to my friends.

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