Monthly Archives: July 2015

Jiaqi, Student, Oderzo, Italy

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong


photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong


photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

Jiaqi, in his own words: “Being gay. Well, what does it mean for me? I’m not sure that I’m able to answer this question, it sounds too difficult. Being gay for me is everything, it is my reason for living. To be gay is something that completes me, I can’t imagine a me that loves girls. To be attracted by boys is a wonderful feeling, I’ve known this feeling since I was six years old even though I didn’t know what being gay meant. That feeling has become more clear over the time.

The greatest success that I had in my life has been accepting my sexuality, I swear that it wasn’t so easy. I felt it was wrong and I tried to be straight, I also tried to have a girlfriend but, luckily was unsuccessful because I’m not a good liar and I couldn’t lie to myself and I couldn’t cheat on my true nature.

Now, my main challenge is to come out as gay. It’s not so easy so I’ve decided to come out step by step. First I came out to some close friends and then to my classmates. I love the feeling after a coming out because you can finally BE and feel free to express yourself. The difficult part of this huge challenge is to come out to my parents and to my relatives. They are Chinese and in my family nobody has ever said the word “gay”. Right now I’m not ready to take this important step, I’m still too young and I need more self confidence. But I’m sure that I’ll win this battle.

I live in a small town in the close minded North East of Italy, so there isn’t a true gay community around me. It’s not easy meeting gay people, or having a relationship. I’m going to move to a bigger city for my university studies and I hope to find an environment that lets me express myself completely, without judgments, without discriminations.

I have never kissed a boy, I have never had a boyfriend and I have never had sex. I’m seventeen and this situation is very frustrating. I used to be sad and depressed every time that I saw a photo of a happy gay couple on the web. Now I have changed and the advice that I could give to my younger myself is: take it easy and don’t rush.”

Álvaro, Researcher, Santiago, Chile

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

Álvaro, in his own words: “Being not straight was a brick in the construction of new nuances in my life, helping to create the habit of questioning, to love and validate what I feel, in all areas of life, to love from freedom, always.

I’m surrounded by a beautiful community: Gay, queer & straight good friends & family, awesome boyfriends… I’m very happy about it.”

Mussa, Outreach Worker, Cape Town, South Africa

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

photo by Kevin Truong

Mussa, in his own words: “Being gay to me, means being who I am. I don’t see any strange thing in being gay as a human. Because in this world people are not the same. We should just respect one another as God’s creations.

In this world people face a lot of challenges but when it comes to a gay person, it is another issue. Discriminations, stigmas etc…but all of those things you should challenge them in accepting yourself first then you will have full access in dealing with other issues. Like family, friends, communities etc… the moment people stress you, and you allow stress to stress you, you will be stressed the entirety of your life. I believe that any one can have goals to achieve in his life, but so long with grace of God I am coping with any kind of situation which I never thought of. The success it is good thing in life. I can not say that I achieved everything in life needed, but what I can assure you is that I made a peace inside of myself.

My coming out story is so complicated. As I’m telling you, I am 37 years old but this year 2014, that’s when my family knew about my sexuality.

Coming out is not an easy thing, but I always believed that nothing was wrong about me, where by I never felt owing anyone an explanation of me being homosexual or gay. People talk a lot of things about the bible, but what I know is that homosexuals have been there from the start of creation. And I believe that again God is not a killer.

The gay community in Capetown is more broader (generally than in South Africa ). Having a government which recognizes human rights is a big step in keeping your nation at peace. Out of that, South Africa’s law, allowing marriage to the same sex couples even though there is still a lot to do for the community to feel it as normal life, but at least same saxes couples fill protected by the law.

The advice I would give to youths is that in life people love one another and people hate one another. So, they should be prepared for those kind of challenges and they shouldn’t fill ashamed or offended because of criticism, stigmas hate, will be always there until Jesus comes, if it will happen. And they should know that God loves each and every person. However he look like. God loves everyone and they should not keep themselves away from churches or public services which would uplift them for their daily life until a person dies.”