Stephen, 19 years old, gay : ’I sat at T.G.I. Fridays with my dad in april of this year. I just said it, in the middle of dinner. I wasn’t going to say it, but then I did it anyways: ’Dad, there’s something, I need to tell you: ’I’m gay.’ ’He just sat there, and put his hands on his head, then he walked out. Didn’t talk to me. He emailed me later, and told me that he wasn’t paying for college anymore. You’re not allowed to come home,’ he said. ’I expected it to be different. I’m glad I got homeless in a way, because I feel it humbles me. One of my friends call it ’civilian bootcamp’, because the days before you find a shelter, you don’t sleep. It took me 5 days. I was too afraid to sleep. I finally fell asleep on a bench at Christopher Street. That’s the only time I slept,’ Stephen says.

The good news is that these days many young gays and lesbians gather the courage to come out at an earlier age than they used to only a few years back; the bad news is that many parents still do not accept the idea of having a gay child, and take the very bad decision of kicking them out of their house.

This content is restricted to subscribers

Join FotoRoom

Amateur Only €10/year	Pro Only €20/year
FotoCal (+) Open Calls (+) No banners!	FotoCal (+) Open Calls (+) The Button (+) Search (+) No banners!
Select Plan	Select Plan

Amateur

Only €10/year

Pro

Only €20/year

Select Plan

Photo Vasantha Yogananthan

Keep looking...

Katie Burdon Wins the Series Category of #FotoRoomOPEN | Kiosk Edition

Enter #FotoRoomOPEN and Have Your Work Made into a Photobook by Gnomic Book

FotoCal — Photography Awards, Grants and Calls for Entries Closing in August 2018

FotoFirst — Eleonora Agostini Has Her Parents Perform for the Camera in Uncanny Photographs

Ways of Escape — Antonis Theodoridis Photographs Athens in the Harsh Mid-day Sun

How Love Changes — Jane Hilton Juxtaposes Portraits of Young Couples and Widows

FotoFirst — Terry Ratzlaff Portrays the People Looking for Sex Online

FotoFirst — New Cinematic Photobook Explores Residential Segregation in St. Louis

More...