I worked for 6 years for a gay queer radio show. One guy I knew for not being a “gay community believer” asked me one day if I was part of the show out of militancy. It took me time to figure out the answer but I just said that, having had to go through harsh homophobic moments during my teenage years, having such a free speech show about queer/lgbt matters would have been helpful. So I was mainly doing the show hoping that it would help at least a few people the way I would have wanted to be helped.

As a matter of fact, the show aired its very last episode in June. We received a lot of mail from the audience when they heard it was gonna be over. One of the mail was from a guy explaining that he suffered from homophobia in boarding school and was listening to the show all week long to give him strength. So we helped. And I could not have been more proud than when I read this email.

I come from a small town and discovered homophobia maybe even before I could name what made me feel different. I started to come out to a few friends when I was about 15, I was terrified of their reactions but they were brilliant and really careful. Then, after an argument with her, I decided to come out to my mother. I did not have the guts to tell her so I wrote a letter. I came back home, we talked and she cried. Mainly because the only gay guy she heard of from our town became (apparently) was a prostitute in Paris. We did not talk about it for two years and then, she discovered that I had a boyfriend and realized being gay was not that different from “being anyone else”. I have to say, I was blessed when it came to coming out.

Brussels can be a small village sometimes but when it comes to the gay community, you have a lot happening. Even though we use to have more bars and parties a few years back, you’ll find a lot of good associations from sport to aids-fighting which happens to be very active. At the same time, we all know how gays can be sometimes and Brussels is no exception to this..