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	<title>Comments on: I have boyfriends, but I&#8217;m afraid I might be a lesbian</title>
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	<link>http://exodusyouth.net/2008/10/29/i-have-boyfriends-but-i-am-afraid-i-might-be-a-lesbian/</link>
	<description>finding true freedom</description>
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		<title>By: pinkelephant_s</title>
		<link>http://exodusyouth.net/2008/10/29/i-have-boyfriends-but-i-am-afraid-i-might-be-a-lesbian/comment-page-1/#comment-317</link>
		<dc:creator>pinkelephant_s</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:21:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://exodusyouth.net/?p=188#comment-317</guid>
		<description>Yvette Schneider, you are officially my hero. For writing this
article. Seriously. Almost everything you mentioned in this piece -
the fear of being lesbian, the sexual thoughts, finding other women
attractive - have occured in my own life. Although I had only once
found a woman very attractive, I had never actually felt sexually
attracted to another woman. Yet still the thought that I might be
lesbian/bisexual plagued me. I had a boyfriend, and that just made
it worse - I felt guilty. I was so confused with myself that I just
WISHED, if there was a possibility that I was lesbian/bisexual, I
was secure and comfortable with the idea. Of course, for anyone
coming out, this could be a struggle. But now I think, having never
actually had feelings for another woman, I can safely say that my
mind was truly just in a mix-up, infused by the sexual hype of
today&#039;s society. Another influence I think, is the fact that my
friends used to mock me about being &quot;lesbian&quot; - at times. Even
though it was in a friendly way, I think it might have embedded in
me the fear of being excluded. Isn&#039;t that ironic? The way our
society has become so sexualized, yet at the same time, many of us
still can&#039;t openly embrace homosexuality? I thank you so much; this
has seriously helped me figure myself out. It may sound loser-ish,
but I am going to print this and stick it into my diary, as never
to forget!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Yvette Schneider, you are officially my hero. For writing this<br />
article. Seriously. Almost everything you mentioned in this piece -<br />
the fear of being lesbian, the sexual thoughts, finding other women<br />
attractive &#8211; have occured in my own life. Although I had only once<br />
found a woman very attractive, I had never actually felt sexually<br />
attracted to another woman. Yet still the thought that I might be<br />
lesbian/bisexual plagued me. I had a boyfriend, and that just made<br />
it worse &#8211; I felt guilty. I was so confused with myself that I just<br />
WISHED, if there was a possibility that I was lesbian/bisexual, I<br />
was secure and comfortable with the idea. Of course, for anyone<br />
coming out, this could be a struggle. But now I think, having never<br />
actually had feelings for another woman, I can safely say that my<br />
mind was truly just in a mix-up, infused by the sexual hype of<br />
today&#8217;s society. Another influence I think, is the fact that my<br />
friends used to mock me about being &#8220;lesbian&#8221; &#8211; at times. Even<br />
though it was in a friendly way, I think it might have embedded in<br />
me the fear of being excluded. Isn&#8217;t that ironic? The way our<br />
society has become so sexualized, yet at the same time, many of us<br />
still can&#8217;t openly embrace homosexuality? I thank you so much; this<br />
has seriously helped me figure myself out. It may sound loser-ish,<br />
but I am going to print this and stick it into my diary, as never<br />
to forget!</p>
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		<title>By: Chris Stump</title>
		<link>http://exodusyouth.net/2008/10/29/i-have-boyfriends-but-i-am-afraid-i-might-be-a-lesbian/comment-page-1/#comment-312</link>
		<dc:creator>Chris Stump</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:58:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://exodusyouth.net/?p=188#comment-312</guid>
		<description>Hi sparklingorange,  I would encourage you to let her know that you have no desire to pursue anything with her.  Stand firm on your own boundaries.  If necessary, you may want to have someone like a mentor get involved, someone who can hold you accountable in this situation.  It would be great for you to have someone to dialogue with about this.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hi sparklingorange,  I would encourage you to let her know that you have no desire to pursue anything with her.  Stand firm on your own boundaries.  If necessary, you may want to have someone like a mentor get involved, someone who can hold you accountable in this situation.  It would be great for you to have someone to dialogue with about this.</p>
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		<title>By: sparklingorange</title>
		<link>http://exodusyouth.net/2008/10/29/i-have-boyfriends-but-i-am-afraid-i-might-be-a-lesbian/comment-page-1/#comment-301</link>
		<dc:creator>sparklingorange</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:28:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://exodusyouth.net/?p=188#comment-301</guid>
		<description>Im struggling with thoughts and feelings for a lesbian relationship
but have not acted on them. Ive never really felt comfortable
kissing guys and with it being 2009 I thought this meant that i
wasnt destined to be with guys and i felt scared because of the
verse in the bible saying heaven isnt for homosexuals. i became
friends with a girl before ifound out she was bi and now i found
out shes attracted to me physicaly. she says i act more like a guy
than a girl in the way i handle myself but ive never noticed it
because ive always been tougher than most girls. in PE we were
assigned to be partners for fitness training which includes
spotting eachother when lifting weights and more than once ive
noticed her watching me like a girl admires a guy.this has been
sort of awkward for me but ive tried to deflect her attention by
telling her about God. much to my suprise she tells me that she is
catholic. i dont know what to do next.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Im struggling with thoughts and feelings for a lesbian relationship<br />
but have not acted on them. Ive never really felt comfortable<br />
kissing guys and with it being 2009 I thought this meant that i<br />
wasnt destined to be with guys and i felt scared because of the<br />
verse in the bible saying heaven isnt for homosexuals. i became<br />
friends with a girl before ifound out she was bi and now i found<br />
out shes attracted to me physicaly. she says i act more like a guy<br />
than a girl in the way i handle myself but ive never noticed it<br />
because ive always been tougher than most girls. in PE we were<br />
assigned to be partners for fitness training which includes<br />
spotting eachother when lifting weights and more than once ive<br />
noticed her watching me like a girl admires a guy.this has been<br />
sort of awkward for me but ive tried to deflect her attention by<br />
telling her about God. much to my suprise she tells me that she is<br />
catholic. i dont know what to do next.</p>
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		<title>By: lalalaney</title>
		<link>http://exodusyouth.net/2008/10/29/i-have-boyfriends-but-i-am-afraid-i-might-be-a-lesbian/comment-page-1/#comment-201</link>
		<dc:creator>lalalaney</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:38:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://exodusyouth.net/?p=188#comment-201</guid>
		<description>I totally agree with this article, I also think the media and social conditions influence us greatly.  It&#039;s sometimes so easy to get consumed in the world and we let that influence the way we act and mostly think.  I did learn before, that our thoughts influence our actions, so it makes sense that the more we think about possibly being a certain way, then letting what we see in mags, or tv, and on the internet confirm what we think, it becomes normal-when really it is not.  To me it even seems that the good is hidden and the bad is just blaring like a loud stereo which then seemingly turns into good.  Im really greatful that there are so many people out there who are standing up for their beliefs, and are sharing it with others, this article was refreshing, thank you!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I totally agree with this article, I also think the media and social conditions influence us greatly.  It&#8217;s sometimes so easy to get consumed in the world and we let that influence the way we act and mostly think.  I did learn before, that our thoughts influence our actions, so it makes sense that the more we think about possibly being a certain way, then letting what we see in mags, or tv, and on the internet confirm what we think, it becomes normal-when really it is not.  To me it even seems that the good is hidden and the bad is just blaring like a loud stereo which then seemingly turns into good.  Im really greatful that there are so many people out there who are standing up for their beliefs, and are sharing it with others, this article was refreshing, thank you!</p>
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		<title>By: Scott Davis</title>
		<link>http://exodusyouth.net/2008/10/29/i-have-boyfriends-but-i-am-afraid-i-might-be-a-lesbian/comment-page-1/#comment-113</link>
		<dc:creator>Scott Davis</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:52:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://exodusyouth.net/?p=188#comment-113</guid>
		<description>Izzy --

Sounds like you&#039;ve been really confused by all these crazy things that you&#039;ve heard from TV and from your friends. So you aren&#039;t attracted to the same kind of boys as your friends and sometimes you think that another girls looks pretty -- that&#039;s completely normal!

Glad you found our site!

Scott</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Izzy &#8211;</p>
<p>Sounds like you&#8217;ve been really confused by all these crazy things that you&#8217;ve heard from TV and from your friends. So you aren&#8217;t attracted to the same kind of boys as your friends and sometimes you think that another girls looks pretty &#8212; that&#8217;s completely normal!</p>
<p>Glad you found our site!</p>
<p>Scott</p>
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		<title>By: bizzyizzy</title>
		<link>http://exodusyouth.net/2008/10/29/i-have-boyfriends-but-i-am-afraid-i-might-be-a-lesbian/comment-page-1/#comment-112</link>
		<dc:creator>bizzyizzy</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:34:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://exodusyouth.net/?p=188#comment-112</guid>
		<description>thankyou, 
this has helped me so much in understanding things. you dont know how greatfull i am.
i watched a documentory on this actor i have no idea what his name is but he was captin jack in dr who. anyway hes bisexual and he was wondering if he had no choice in the matter and since hes rich and everything he figured &quot;lets have a camra crew follow me&quot; . it turned out that in the end,  said he didnt have a chioce and he was natrualy wired to be homosexual, 
and that got me thinking &quot;OMG, i could be homosexual and not even know it!&quot;
that was a year ago and since then its been building until it went from thinking about now and then, to thinking about it when people brought up homosexualtiy (and thats alot suprisingly,) and then i found out my peano teachers homosexual, then lindsay lohnan told the world about her sexual prefences, and that made me think in wasent that uncommon. 
I had comleatly forgoten that i had been likeing boys since i was about ten and i&#039;m 15 now and i had never found the guys my friends like quite appeling (the cleen cut ones with combs up there sleves, i had always prefered the sensetive one with dark hair regardless of his looks, but they made my friends gag) and thought that then ment i wasnt thinking of boys the right way, 
then i became depressed hateing myself for thinking things that i didnt want to be true, and constantly worrying that whenever i thought a girl looked pretty i was being homosexual, these thoughts dominated my life and messed with my school work and eating, 
and now you&#039;ve made me realise that i was being SO unbelivably paraniod, and since when did a BBC documentery say anything factual in it . 
i&#039;m not religous, but i was brought up in a catholic family and sent to catholic schools so i do beilive in a god and that he is watching over all of us, and i hope that he is watching over you becuse i think you have quite litraly saved my life. and i am sending so much love your way! 

Thankyou more than you&#039;ll EVER know 

Izzy</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>thankyou,<br />
this has helped me so much in understanding things. you dont know how greatfull i am.<br />
i watched a documentory on this actor i have no idea what his name is but he was captin jack in dr who. anyway hes bisexual and he was wondering if he had no choice in the matter and since hes rich and everything he figured &quot;lets have a camra crew follow me&quot; . it turned out that in the end,  said he didnt have a chioce and he was natrualy wired to be homosexual,<br />
and that got me thinking &quot;OMG, i could be homosexual and not even know it!&quot;<br />
that was a year ago and since then its been building until it went from thinking about now and then, to thinking about it when people brought up homosexualtiy (and thats alot suprisingly,) and then i found out my peano teachers homosexual, then lindsay lohnan told the world about her sexual prefences, and that made me think in wasent that uncommon.<br />
I had comleatly forgoten that i had been likeing boys since i was about ten and i&#8217;m 15 now and i had never found the guys my friends like quite appeling (the cleen cut ones with combs up there sleves, i had always prefered the sensetive one with dark hair regardless of his looks, but they made my friends gag) and thought that then ment i wasnt thinking of boys the right way,<br />
then i became depressed hateing myself for thinking things that i didnt want to be true, and constantly worrying that whenever i thought a girl looked pretty i was being homosexual, these thoughts dominated my life and messed with my school work and eating,<br />
and now you&#8217;ve made me realise that i was being SO unbelivably paraniod, and since when did a BBC documentery say anything factual in it .<br />
i&#8217;m not religous, but i was brought up in a catholic family and sent to catholic schools so i do beilive in a god and that he is watching over all of us, and i hope that he is watching over you becuse i think you have quite litraly saved my life. and i am sending so much love your way! </p>
<p>Thankyou more than you&#8217;ll EVER know </p>
<p>Izzy</p>
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		<title>By: Frank Carrasco</title>
		<link>http://exodusyouth.net/2008/10/29/i-have-boyfriends-but-i-am-afraid-i-might-be-a-lesbian/comment-page-1/#comment-108</link>
		<dc:creator>Frank Carrasco</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:16:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://exodusyouth.net/?p=188#comment-108</guid>
		<description>RedRose, I have not struggled with Lesbian attractions myself, and as I understand it, men are wired different in so much as we&#039;re more visual than emotional. I know that the bulk of my struggle has dealt with lusting after men rather than emotional attachments. That being said, it is not as if I cant relate to your struggle at all. I too have fallen victim to developing feelings for a friends. In fact, that is precisely how I fell into an innappropriate relationship five years ago. I confessed to my friend that I was struggling with same gender attractions. He told me they were normal and even encouraged me to experiment with him. Thankfully neither of us had a car and nothing ever happened, but still the emotional ties were there and the willingness to act out with him was too. 

What helped me was that I ceased all communications with my friend. I erased his number from my phone, I changed numbers shortly thereafter and erased any other contact information like screennames or blogs I had for him. The seperation made it easier to cope. If I wanted to reach out for him I couldnt, eventually the moment would pass and I would be ok. It wasnt an easy choice and it was painful. but much more painful would have been for me to give in. I later was able to look at the relationship from a more objective approach and realized that my affection for him was selfish. He fed me affirmation and told me the things I wanted to hear. I wanted to own him so he could keep feeding me the words I needed to hear, that I was of value and handsome. The bible gives a very clear illustration of love in 1stCor chapter 13. I can honestly say my feelings for him (despite how intense, passionate and real they felt) did not fall within the parameters set forth in those verses. 

conventional wisdom would suggest that you let go of the relationship with that girl all together. if you both fell, it would probably be hard to maintain a healthy, safe, fullfilling friendship while both of you are brewing with romantic/sexual feelings beneath the surface. 

but one point I always stress is community. this journey cannot be done without community. for me it involved a support group and later on intense counseling. I encourage you to seek out an Exodus member ministry in your area that can help you walk through these issues or at least seek out a christian counselor (preferable female) to help you walk through this one on one. when we are in the midst of a struggle our greatest asset are people who love us and can see us through the fog that clouds our own judgement. I would also encourage you to get your hands on some resourses helping to explain female homosexuality.

much love,
Frank</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>RedRose, I have not struggled with Lesbian attractions myself, and as I understand it, men are wired different in so much as we&#8217;re more visual than emotional. I know that the bulk of my struggle has dealt with lusting after men rather than emotional attachments. That being said, it is not as if I cant relate to your struggle at all. I too have fallen victim to developing feelings for a friends. In fact, that is precisely how I fell into an innappropriate relationship five years ago. I confessed to my friend that I was struggling with same gender attractions. He told me they were normal and even encouraged me to experiment with him. Thankfully neither of us had a car and nothing ever happened, but still the emotional ties were there and the willingness to act out with him was too. </p>
<p>What helped me was that I ceased all communications with my friend. I erased his number from my phone, I changed numbers shortly thereafter and erased any other contact information like screennames or blogs I had for him. The seperation made it easier to cope. If I wanted to reach out for him I couldnt, eventually the moment would pass and I would be ok. It wasnt an easy choice and it was painful. but much more painful would have been for me to give in. I later was able to look at the relationship from a more objective approach and realized that my affection for him was selfish. He fed me affirmation and told me the things I wanted to hear. I wanted to own him so he could keep feeding me the words I needed to hear, that I was of value and handsome. The bible gives a very clear illustration of love in 1stCor chapter 13. I can honestly say my feelings for him (despite how intense, passionate and real they felt) did not fall within the parameters set forth in those verses. </p>
<p>conventional wisdom would suggest that you let go of the relationship with that girl all together. if you both fell, it would probably be hard to maintain a healthy, safe, fullfilling friendship while both of you are brewing with romantic/sexual feelings beneath the surface. </p>
<p>but one point I always stress is community. this journey cannot be done without community. for me it involved a support group and later on intense counseling. I encourage you to seek out an Exodus member ministry in your area that can help you walk through these issues or at least seek out a christian counselor (preferable female) to help you walk through this one on one. when we are in the midst of a struggle our greatest asset are people who love us and can see us through the fog that clouds our own judgement. I would also encourage you to get your hands on some resourses helping to explain female homosexuality.</p>
<p>much love,<br />
Frank</p>
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		<title>By: redrose92</title>
		<link>http://exodusyouth.net/2008/10/29/i-have-boyfriends-but-i-am-afraid-i-might-be-a-lesbian/comment-page-1/#comment-107</link>
		<dc:creator>redrose92</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:13:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://exodusyouth.net/?p=188#comment-107</guid>
		<description>The whole &quot;pink elephant&quot; did make a lot of sense. The more we choose to dwell on our thoughts, feelings, emotions, or even actions, the more intense they become to us. For me, I try so hard not to dwell on any of those, and if I do, I try to quickly get my mind of it by going for a drive, music, checking emails, or even go running.
A lot of times tho, I can&#039;t seem to get away from these thoughts and all..I get stuck and cannot get my mind off it no matter what. Then when I do get stuck dwelling on them, I&#039;m struck by the overwhelming guilt and confusion of why I even have feelings for the same-sex! If I know God tells us same-sex relations are wrong, why do I struggle with it so badly? In the Bible it says to run from sexual immorality...I just don&#039;t feel like I can run fast enough from it!
What I don&#039;t understand is how I can have feelings for guys AND girls..Right now I&#039;m kind of in a stage of &quot;I don&#039;t like guys that much, and I don&#039;t want to date them&quot; so I guess I turned to girls. I still do not understand why, but I&#039;ve struggles with same-sex attractions for years, only this year I gave into my lusts for same-sex and became involved physically and emotionally with a girl, who happened to be one of my best friends. I want so bad to NOT like her, but I cant seem to shake it! How am I supposed to stop these feelings? I don&#039;t like guys, and I dont WANT to like girls..Does this mean I&#039;m bi? I know its wrong, but I keep falling into the temptations. And to make it worse, my friend (the girl) gets upset with me when I talk about how our relationship is sin and that I feel bad. She says she&#039;s a Christian too, but if she is then why does she get so angry with me about that? I&#039;m so confused!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The whole &quot;pink elephant&quot; did make a lot of sense. The more we choose to dwell on our thoughts, feelings, emotions, or even actions, the more intense they become to us. For me, I try so hard not to dwell on any of those, and if I do, I try to quickly get my mind of it by going for a drive, music, checking emails, or even go running.<br />
A lot of times tho, I can&#8217;t seem to get away from these thoughts and all..I get stuck and cannot get my mind off it no matter what. Then when I do get stuck dwelling on them, I&#8217;m struck by the overwhelming guilt and confusion of why I even have feelings for the same-sex! If I know God tells us same-sex relations are wrong, why do I struggle with it so badly? In the Bible it says to run from sexual immorality&#8230;I just don&#8217;t feel like I can run fast enough from it!<br />
What I don&#8217;t understand is how I can have feelings for guys AND girls..Right now I&#8217;m kind of in a stage of &quot;I don&#8217;t like guys that much, and I don&#8217;t want to date them&quot; so I guess I turned to girls. I still do not understand why, but I&#8217;ve struggles with same-sex attractions for years, only this year I gave into my lusts for same-sex and became involved physically and emotionally with a girl, who happened to be one of my best friends. I want so bad to NOT like her, but I cant seem to shake it! How am I supposed to stop these feelings? I don&#8217;t like guys, and I dont WANT to like girls..Does this mean I&#8217;m bi? I know its wrong, but I keep falling into the temptations. And to make it worse, my friend (the girl) gets upset with me when I talk about how our relationship is sin and that I feel bad. She says she&#8217;s a Christian too, but if she is then why does she get so angry with me about that? I&#8217;m so confused!</p>
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