![gay pride month key west gay pride month key west](https://gaykeywestfl.com/wp-content/uploads/parade19.jpg)
![gay pride month key west gay pride month key west](https://www.travelforsenses.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/key-west-1024x522.jpg)
As I began to come out to family and friends, I asked an acquaintance of mine that worked with Zebra House in Orlando "What can I do to make sure the next generation does not have to go through what I did?" His answer confused me at first and then he explained. Along with all those brave souls that stepped out of the shadows so early and changed the face of what it meant to be gay, my world began to change and my strength grew. Since those darker times, I’ve grown and worked through all those psychological demons.
![gay pride month key west gay pride month key west](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u3Vma4-1yU4/T6jyfzhHXEI/AAAAAAAAB4c/RYwM5VOXarA/s1600/KeyWestPride4.jpg)
As a result I didn’t fit into either group, which isolated me even more - until one day I almost did the unthinkable. It was “the flamboyant, the obvious”, and I didn’t see myself among that crowd. All that I saw around me and even in the media of the day, which reported on the beginnings of the gay rights movement in NYC, did nothing for me. I withdrew from the unaccepting world around me and dark thoughts began to creep into my mind. It was a lonely and isolating time for me. The walls and mechanisms to cope with that went up. As I entered my early teens, the realization of who I was and what that meant became apparent. From the time I was about eight years old I knew I was different, but just exactly what that meant would not reveal itself to me until later. Growing up in the sixties and early seventies as a child I had no reference points of who I was and what or how I fit into the greater society.