It gets better - NanjoKoji

It gets better.
You've surely seen the messages on YouTube and else of people going out to tell gay teenagers in question, desperate or considering suicide because of being who they are about their own experiences, bolstering them, providing support. This is an awesome movement. Everyone should support it. So I decided to add my own message to it as well.

I am gay. I have been gay all my life, I was born that way. I love girls. I have never loved anyone but girls.
I'm engaged very much in the anime fandom, I've seen it grow for the time of a whole decade. I'm a known cosplayer. The anime fandom is very open today towards homosexuals. But it is not all that is out there. I want to talk on this matter from inside the fandom, to others who share it with me, but also to those who don't know a thing of it. To gay people and to straight ones as well. To everyone safe and to everyone in trouble, no matter who or where you are, what or whom you love.
To show you that it gets better. It really does.

When I was 16, my girlfriend begged me not to tell anyone that we were together. She was afraid of losing all her friends, to be avoided. I loved her and I wanted to support her. So I lied to my friends, for three years. I felt awful. Of course everyone noticed and I was so lucky that they were ok with it. My girlfriend didn't believe it for a long time. Another lesbian girl we knew, the only one we knew at that time, was not so lucky. Homosexuality was a taboo, even in the anime fandom back then. It seemed as if no one else was gay. It was 'strange', something that 'just happened to some weirdos'. This was just ten years ago.  

It got better.

Look at the fandom now. There is acceptance. There is open-mindedness. We owe some of this to the popularity of mangas on gay love. But don't mix up yaoi and life. This is not the same. It has nothing to do with each other. Yaoi is a romantic up to erotic fantasy tale for girls. Still we have to consider the influence it had and has on teenage girls' minds. It helped.
But there is more to do than to squee over two imaginary boys. Accepting imaginary homosexuality will not lead to accept real homosexuals if they are not there. I regret today that I wasn't out of the closet earlier. Because it's important to be there. In the modern anime fandom, it's easy to be there. We need to be there in other aspects of our lifes as well. We need to be visible.

People tend to demonize things they don't know, strangers. We, who are lucky enough to be accepted by our friends, can help others who are less lucky to find acceptance, too. We can be the gay sons and daughters, gay classmates, gay colleagues, gay bosses, gay journalists, gay people on the bus, gay bypassers of life. Not by exhibiting ourselves, but by just BEING ourselves. We can touch people's lifes so they understand that we're not different. But that we are alike.

But not all of us can just be out of the closet. There is a difference between bravery and break-neck. If you're being bullied, if you're afraid to speak, if you're afraid to show and tell, to be honest or just to tell your parents how your day really was. When we're young, we are bound. We're not grown-up yet, we can't just leave, we can't decide for ourselves as much as we want, we don't have the money and the power to help ourselves.
This will change.
But not always we can just shut up and wait. It hurts. Sometimes it's just not possible.
Then you must know that there is help. There are people who will listen and who will act for you. Not always are they the ones who should be there for you in the first place. They may not be your parents or friends, your classmate or teachers. But that doesn't make them worth less.
If there is no one near you who understands you, that means that you just haven't met them yet. If there is no one you can love with all your heart, it just means that s/he is still out there, waiting for you. Believe me on this. There is love and there is acceptance and friendship waiting for you out there. And you will find it if you just don't give up. I promise. I experienced it myself.
When you're young, you doubt that you'll ever find someone who will love you as you imagined it in your dreams. But these dreams will come true if you don't give up on them. There are hard times, for some they are worse than that, but there will be the good times. They will be there.

Don't listen to those who tell you that you're not worth a thing. You'll see them failing in life, just as I did. In first class in elementary school, I was bullied for my long red hair, I still don't understand it. I was afraid. Then I decided to stand up against them. I have never been bullied again. Sometimes standing up is not enough. Still don't give up. If it gets too bad, switch schools. A different school is like a different life. Just don't give up. Don't cut short on yourself because of others. Don't put yourself below them. Dare to choose your own road. It may be hard and difficult and sometimes the next step will seem unbearable. But it will lead you somewhere bright.