“I Realized I Was Gay”: Men Who Came Out Later In Life Are Sharing What It Was Like For Them To Reveal That Truth And Live Authentically – BuzzFeed

23. “At around 28 years old, I had a decent grasp that I’m overwhelmingly gay, with some rare and specific attraction towards women. I wasn’t interested in doing anything sexual for the first 23 years of my life, including masturbation. Then my internal sexual ‘switch’ was turned on. I gradually developed more and more sexual tension to the point it was feeling distressed. After a few months of experiencing very novel and intense sexual feelings, I overcame my fear of masturbation and started doing it to various kinds of straight and gay porn. It didn’t take long to figure out that I liked men to an extent, but it took me years to flesh out the details.”

“At 30 years old, I experienced sexual attraction to a man for the first time after we’d been online friends for a month. I came out to some close online friends and got into online dating for the first time. Then COVID happened and online dating became too stressful, so I’m holding off on meeting prospective partners until it’s more safe. 

My next goal is to tell my parents and family about my sexuality. That’s still a work in progress.” —u/rbtur