Ursula Halligan wrote an article revealing she’s a lesbian, inspired by next week’s same-sex marriage referendum.
This is Ursula Halligan, the political editor of Ireland's TV3 channel, and her coming out article has gone viral.
Wikipedia
These past few months must have been the darkest and gloomiest I have ever experienced in my entire life. There have been times when I have even thought about death, of escaping from this world, of sleeping untouched by no-one forever. I have been so depressed, so sad and so confused. There seems to be no one I can turn to, not even God.
The Irish Times
She added: "Because of my upbringing, I was revolted at the thought that I was in love with a member of my own sex. This contradiction within me nearly drove me crazy. I hated myself. I felt useless and worthless and very small and stupid. I had one option, and only one option. I would be 'normal', and that meant locking myself in the closet and throwing away the key."
As a result of the turmoil Halligan felt, she said she pretended to be attracted to men, and even made homophobic remarks, to help hide her sexuality. Ireland in the 1970s was, she wrote, a place where homophobia was "rampant and uninhibited", where, "Homosexuals were faggots, queers, poofs, freaks, deviants, unclean, unnatural, mentally ill, second class and defective humans. They were society's defects. Biological errors. They were other people." And so, she concluded, "I couldn't possibly be one of them."