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Thanks to all of you who have started to tweet our #KissOffToHate campaign…. please tell more of your friends to get involved. Details below!

Here, actor Kristian Turner explain why post-Orlando he feels it’s necessary to show affection with with his partner Steven Hardcastle.

image‘In today’s world I didn’t think there was a need to make an effort to consciously show gay gestures and the like on social media. But after recent events in Orlando it really seems like we have to. I am extremely lucky and privileged to grow up in a world of acceptance and not be ashamed of who I am. In recent years with the legalisation of gay marriage, being a gay man living in the UK is like being on cloud nine.

The option to make that commitment to my long time partner like any other heterosexual relationship makes me so happy. #KissOffToHate campaign is quite an interesting for me because up until now I really have been quite against public affection. Nothing quite puts me off than seeing any couple, gay or straight, making out in public. I genuinely find it quite unnerving seeing public affection. I just don’t find the need for it, as I strongly believe there is a time and place for it.

My partner and I have been together just shy of five years and I wouldn’t dare make out with him in public, not because I don’t love him, but feel it’s inappropriate. I am comfortable holding hands in public, but do find myself stopping sometimes, depending on what part of town we are in. This is not because I am ashamed of my sexuality, but I just want to avoid too much attention.

However after the Orlando massacre, I have really found the need to stand up for what I believe in and make a small difference even if it is just a simple tweet or a share of a photo. Like any event like this, it affects me in someway shape or form, but the Orlando shootings affected me so badly.

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As this was a direct homophobic attack in a busy nightclub where I might find myself on a Friday or Saturday night in Soho. One tweet that really resonated with me was a drag queen that tweeted a photo related to the shootings and wrote something like ‘People ask me why I keep celebrating pride each year? … Because there is still homophobia in the world’. And unfortunately it really is true, we really have come so very far in the world, but I have come to realise it is still something we need to be talking/tweeting/posting about.

And seeing how the entire world has come together after what happened in Orlando is extremely special. So I urge everyone to keep positive gay gestures going and show people that love really does win!

 

We at GuysLikeU, would like you to take part in our #KissOffToHate campaign to show that we LGBT boys and girls – and our allies – are not going to let homophobia beat us.

Please post pictures of you kissing a special someone on our Twitter feed with the hashtag #KissOffToHate.

Or email at us hello@guyslikeu.com and tell us – like Kristian above – why you are proud to be gay and not ashamed to kiss or hold hands in public.

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