My sexual orientation.

[Lilith7]

I have a Russian neighbour. She isn't the nicest woman, hasn't made many friends here, even her family prefer arms length because she is contentious at times - probably part of the reason she, and many of us, have ended up here in this wee community. But she has that accent. The one that betrays her birth in Kyiv and her life in Moscow. She has been subjected to nasty remarks, lost social contacts, been shunned, and in one case actually spat at by nice well brought up New Zealanders since Putin started his murderous campaign.

People are horrible, and some of us love to vomit hate and spite on available targets, especially on those among us who appear different.

Being gay, or wanting to be accepted outside the norms makes us a target for that kind of attack. A single man in a group of women will know he is 'different', just as a single woman in a group of makes knows only too well she is. There is threat, and risk, and danger in that isolation, be the cause gender, sexuality, race, colour, age, political standpoint, ability or disability...Difference has inherent vulnerability. And we, as predatory animals are triggered by vulnerability.

" Difference has inherent vulnerability. And we, as predatory animals are triggered by vulnerability."

So lets broadcast that difference and then complain about our vulnerability eh?  Only makes sense...

No. Not at all - like most here I'm old enough to remember all too vividly a time when a person could be & was, murdered for being gay. A time when people had to pretend, had to blend in, had to conform & try as best they could to fit into a mould which simply wasn't them.
Humans tend to sometimes, as Hunni says,  latch onto difference & (some of us) attack because of that difference - look around & you can see that everywhere, especially on social media these days.

There are some twisted souls who enjoy baiting, trolling or targeting other people on various social media - anyone slightly different in however small a way can become a target.  And over centuries, gay people have been a target for those of a sadistic turn.

Like most of us I've known several gay people (both in RL & on social media)  over the course of a lifetime & can remember the days when gay people had to hide who they were. Thankfully, those primitive days are gone, thanks to the bravery of gay people themselves having the courage to stand up & tell the world that enough of that particular brand of bullshit was enough & they were no long prepared to hide in corners. They were coming out, & so they did.

And good for them, long may they continue to to not hide, to not be ashamed of who they are.