OT student hopes to inspire and educate thanks to GCU blog
A GCU student has been given the opportunity to open up and inspire others to embrace their sexuality – whatever it may be.
Second year Occupational Therapy student Jamie Arnott wanted to share his experience of receiving abuse which led to him coming out as bisexual – despite being unsure what his sexuality actually is.
Jamie proudly shared his story with the GCU Occupational Therapy Blog as part of LGBTQ+ History Month, which takes place every February across the world.
He said: “I first came out before I started University but it wasn’t really something I was comfortable with doing at the time. It was a hard thing to go through - constantly being questioned on your sexuality is difficult and I think that’s why suicide rates within the LGBTQ+ community are so high.
A lot of people only really know the ‘out Jamie’ but I wanted to show the lead-up to that and how much of a struggle it can be. I’m keen for everyone to recognise that we don’t need a label to define sexuality and doing the blog gave me that opportunity.”
Jamie, who’s also treasurer of the OT Society, was thankful for the chance to share his experience and hopes to both inspire and educate others to create a fairer world for us all.
He explained: “I am incredibly grateful to the OT Society and OT Blog for allowing me to share such a personal story. Not many people are able to share their story on such a big platform and be supported all the way by such an amazing team of people.”
Jamie added: “I think it’s really important to educate, especially since of the big comments people get is being told that they’re either gay or straight. We’ve clearly moved on from the 1960s but we’re still living in this age of two sexualities – anyone can be who they want to be now.
Young people might be scared because they don’t know how others will react. If they know there’s a community out there then they’ll be more willing to show their true self. If anyone is struggling, then they should know that I’m always here to chat.”
You can read Jamie's blog post on the GCU Occupational Therapy Blog
By Ross Clark
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter