Homosexuals often complain of loneliness. At the same time, representatives of the elderly LGBT community are at much greater risk of facing old age alone than their heterosexual peers, the British human rights organization Stonewall notes. However, experts have not come to a consensus on why there are a large number of singles among homosexuals.
Today, there are no official statistics on how many singles live in the world. In the UK, for example, they counted 14.2 million. The number of singles among the LGBT community is unknown for sure, but the number of messages on thematic sites and forums from homosexual singles is off the scale. They state that they are experiencing social discrimination due to the absence of a family. In addition, they are concerned about the feeling of anxiety and dissatisfaction with life because of loneliness.
It is significant that mostly homosexuals who are over 30 years old complain about loneliness. Some experts see a certain pattern in this. "Most homosexuals enter into romantic relationships with members of their own sex for the first time between the ages of 18 and 25, unlike their heterosexual peers (from 14 to 18).
The following phenomenon is often observed: by the age of 30, homosexual men feel like elderly people. Very often, their sexual and emotional rebirth occurs after 30-35 years. And now, at the age of forty, when "real life" is just beginning, the gay environment professing the cult of youth passes a public verdict: those who have crossed the 40-year milestone should go into the shadows, leave the "stage". "Young" forty-year-olds panic: it seems to them that they lose everything in one night. Like Cinderella - when the clock struck midnight," says psychologist Harold Coden.
That's what homosexuals write about the feeling of loneliness in their blogs.
"Is it possible to live your whole life without love? And be content with your loneliness? And is it necessary to live like this?", - the 30-year-old guy asks questions. "I wonder how much time it takes to find the one? I just want a boyfriend. Anyone. So that we love each other to the grave. To drag him for a walk in a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. To do a bunch of cute and thoughtless things. Feed him chocolates. Hug at a meeting. Kiss me goodnight. And not to feel lonely," the 24-year-old writes.
"Most of all, I'm afraid of LONELINESS," the 30-year-old blogger confides.
"Evening - and you're alone again. Advantages: you can do whatever you want. So think about how to call it correctly: freedom or loneliness ...", writes a 26-year-old homosexual. "Everything seems to be there: work, friends, and family... But I'm missing someone with whom I would share my life. There is not enough of that little man who could be called beloved, and to live for him, and to live so, to love so that he lived for me in return, but everything somehow passed by...", - the 28-year-old blogger notes.
"Perhaps you feel acutely lonely during the holidays. When everyone is having fun, having some parties, when your friends are called somewhere, and you are left alone. Even just no one will call you or write to you on social networks. Although on the other hand, you always enjoy peace. I can just sit down and work quietly at any time. Although it is often boring," notes another homosexual.
Is lonely old age one of the biggest fears of homosexuals?
At the same time, many representatives of the LGBT community are worried about lonely old age.
"Loneliness is a very strange concept. You can be lonely in a big family, among friends and close people. I don't feel lonely. It's scary to be lonely in old age, of course," the young man confides.
"Singleton is a conscious life position based on the preferences of a single person. I have just read about the human rights to live alone, that is, about people who define themselves in a certain social group. Allegedly, this is a requirement of modernity, it is good for a person, he does more for himself and his self-improvement. It would seem that everything is simple - you are alone and no one is needed (a good excuse to stop looking). But it seems to me that this is self-deception and an escape from a relationship! Of course, the modern world allows a person to live alone, in ancient times he would not have been able to. Only in a group of people, having a common goal - to live as best as possible, it was possible to survive. In the conditions of the modern world, a person no longer needs society. But is this path so attractive? As long as you are young, healthy, and full of energy, you can live alone... But what if something happens to you? Hit by a car, gangsters will beat up in the entrance or an accident at work... That's when you start to wonder... No one will help (except friends, if they exist and if they are real friends)," the 29-year-old resident of Vladivostok reflects.
"I'm afraid of loneliness in old age. Total. To die and be mummified, so that later they would broadcast it in the news. And then they'll forget. Forever. It's as if I didn't exist," the young Muscovite echoes him.
In some Western countries, they have come close to solving the problem of loneliness among representatives of the LGBT community. In the USA, Canada, Australia and Sweden, there are centers for elderly homosexuals that help them rent housing together. According to psychologists, the fight against loneliness among older gays and lesbians may become a common European trend.