From the age of 12, when i first fell “in love” with another boy, and was reciprocated, and when his mother discovered us, she was swift to move neighbourhood to avoid “the corruptor” (which in her mind was me), feeling branded that way made me feel filthy, different, wrong, and until the age of 26, forced myself to have girlfriends because i had early been “shown” by her look of disgust, directed at me, after catching the two of us rolling around naked in my room at 3 am, that boy-love would ALWAYS result in lain and abandonment.