Staying Negative

Stephen

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I was born and raised in a small town in northern Indiana, just on the outskirts of Chicago. It was pretty horrible but you know, we all have our family, work and life issues. It didn’t really help that for most of my adolescence, I was out in a very isolated area. It was actually just down the way from where Oprah Winfrey had a house out in the country. It was a very isolated experience. (Isolation)

Nicholas' Story

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I was born and raised in Nashville Tennessee. I've lived here my whole life. I found out I had diabetes when I was three years old. It was unfortunate, I feel, to be diagnosed when I was so young because I didn't grow up knowing a normal life before diabetes. I got used to living as being a diabetic. It means that I spend a good deal of my day thinking about what I'm eating, how much insulin I'm taking ... It's something that's always with me. It's always on my mind.

Aaron's Story

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I grew up in foster care in the country, about two hours south of St Louis, Missouri. Both of my parents had drug and alcohol issues, and in the US, a child can be taken away and placed in another home, until their parents can reform.

Gareth

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I grew up in a military family; Dad was in the Navy, so we moved around a lot. I spent time in Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide, and then a bit of time in regional areas: Leinster, which is near Kalgoorlie, and Exmouth in Western Australia. When I was 12 my sister and I went to boarding school; she would have been 13 at the time. It was a private all boys school in Perth, (my sister went to the all girls’ school) and it was good in many ways. It was more stable, because I was now at the one school instead of a different school every year. It was competitive academically and in sports, whereas previously I went to a lot of schools where it was cooler to be a rebel than to excel. Sometimes as soon as you mention boarding school, people think of horrifying stories but I loved it; it was actually a really fun time. (Bullying)

Rithy

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

Born and bred in Melbourne, I was born to Asian parents, which has been a huge part of my life. My parents are from Cambodia, and they moved over here to escape the civil war in 1975, and have been here for over 30 years. They’re quite open parents, considering their background. They do struggle a little bit with my sexuality, but I did have an okay coming out process. (Gay Asian Proud)

John

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I was born in Dumbarton in Scotland, and I came out here when I was two. Apparently I had a wonderful Scottish accent when I first arrived, and I’m spewing that I’ve lost it. Anyway my parents are broad Scots and my dad’s a very proud Scotsman. I grew up with a lot of English, a lot of Scottish, a lot Welsh and Irish people.

Angel

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I didn’t like to use condoms

Stephen

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

My first crush was on a straight friend

Darren

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I’m 31 years old and have lived in Melbourne all my life. I come from a sheltered background with Catholic parents and an education in Catholic schools. My family background meant that I was very much part of the Catholic Church and grew up with many of the values that the Catholic Church espouses.

Matt

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I’m a 35-year-old gay male who identifies 100% as being homosexual. I grew up in the eastern suburbs in Melbourne. I was the oldest of three: one younger brother, one younger sister. I grew up in a very middle-class family that strived to send their kids through private schools. So we never had a huge amount of money but we were given the option - we could either have holidays or we could go to a private school. All three of us wanted to go to private school so we forewent the holidays and things like that. But I had a very loving home environment, particularly on my mum’s side of the family; we were a very close-knit family unit.

Michael

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I was born in Sydney but I grew up on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Firstly it was a tiny little town called Wauchope. Then I moved into the larger nearby town of Port Macquarie, which is about half-way between Sydney and Brisbane. Wauchope was a little town of a few thousand people about 15 minutes drive out of Port Macquarie. Port Macquarie is your usual coastal tourist retreat, the kind of place families go to for holidays year after year.

Jim

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I came from a home with a lot of domestic violence and alcoholism in Brisbane.
It was a very narrow-minded community. I got a lot of anti-gay abuse at school
and from my family so childhood was quite a homophobic experience. (Family violence) (Homophobia)

Glenn’s story

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I grew up in a Christian home. My father was a minister and I had a really nice upbringing and stuff, as far as my family goes. However, the whole Christian home came with a whole heap of burdens mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. So that caused a bit of conflict in my life and led me to different paths at various stages.

Wayne

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I grew up in the NSW town of Wagga Wagga; it was basically a very conservative country town. My childhood was good because I didn’t know about my sexuality, so growing up was pretty easy-going. When I was a teenager and started having an attraction to guys, I was unsure about my sexuality. I think it was hard to seek support back then because of homophobia.

Lawrence

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I grew up in Frankston with one brother and one sister. My brother is 10-and-a-half years older than me. My sister was seven years older than me and I just lost her in august last year.

Sam

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I grew up in Sydney in Bronte. My parents split when I was quite young so I grew up with my mother. I only got to know dad when I was 15 or 16. I’ve got two half-sisters on my dad’s side but again didn’t get to know them until I was older.

Rodney

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I grew up on the north-west coast of Tasmania. I spent my childhood on a dairy farm near Sheffield. I have a sister who’s four years younger. However, both my parents were from quite large farming families so I have a multitude of first, second, third, fourth and fifth cousins. There’s a grain of truth in every stereotype, and one stereotype of Tasmania is that everyone’s related. So I went to school with lots of people who were my cousins. The frightening thing about it was that my mother and father could identify instantly what their relationship was to me, even if it was as distant as a fourth or fifth cousin.

Ben

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I was raised in the Sunshine Coast which is quite a beachy surfey sort of place. It was a pretty cool area to grow up in during the nineties. My mum always raised us with a really open mind; she taught us a lot about sex education and stuff like that. For her open communication was really important, which I think in a lot of Chinese background families is a rare thing. My mum can be incredibly frank about that stuff would talk to my sisters about the importance of vaginal hygiene from a young age. So I think that was a good and important part of our upbringing.

Raymond

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I was born here in Sydney, Australia as an only child. I’ve always known I was a bit different, but it was never really acted upon because I had things to do, a whole world to explore. I remember when I was really young, as a kid back in primary school, I kissed a boy and I liked it. We sort of crashed into each other and kissed. It was really odd. We were walking past each other and then he went left, I went left, I went right, he went right. It was very in the moment. It wasn’t like, I kissed then he kissed. It was sort of both at the same time, ‘Let’s pucker’. We both didn’t know what it was so we just sort of kept on playing. We were young.

Andrew N

Staying Negative — SSSSSS

I had a great childhood. I lived in a quite suburban street in Melbourne. I remember being a very effeminate young boy. I had this white taffeta dress with white patent leather clogs and I would walk up and down the driveway. My Mum would scream at me “Andrew come inside!!!” and I’d turn on my heal and say “Stop calling me Andrew, my name’s Jenny! So I knew I was very different. I had lots of girl friends growing up because I found them easier to hang out with. I was incredibly uncomfortable because I knew I was attracted to boys and had been from a very young age.