Growing up queer and rural
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How did Reese first experience coming out as a teen in a small town?
I came out when I was fifteen, sixteen, so I came out pretty early and did that small town gay thing where when you come out as gay, you suddenly just turned the dial up to eleven and I was the gayest gay that ever gayed. But also you still are virtu, so you're like you're not even sure what being gay really is.
The hookup. Love and honey. On Triple J.
Warning Sex and Adult Themes Hey, Hannah Riley here. Everyone wants to feel like they belong, and finding your people can be hard enough. But imagine being gay in a small town. The only gay in the village, if you will. How would you even meet anyone? Rural grinder? Reese Nicholson is a comedian who grew up in Newcastle.
I'm sure a lot of queer people can text in from Newcastle and back up that it's uh you know, a big old city, but it is there are parts of it that aren't super comfortable for the gays to to be in. Um And
what was it like growing up for you, your childhood?
Um, look, I was very lucky. I have a very I I in all these types of stories I always feel quite you know, I d I don't have any kind of harrowing I was very, very lucky that my family are very supportive and always were. In fact I think they knew from quite a young age and kind of planted the seeds as I got old. Like I rem as a ten year old my mum said to me, Uh, you know, if you were if you were gay, that'd be that'd be fine. So I was I was uh you know, just just backing 'em up so there's no difficult decisions. Um but I you know, it's I I had a fine I went to a performing arts school, Hunter School of Performing Arts, or as we were commonly known by all the other schools, the Hunter School of Poofs and Tats.
Uh That's our word. Um so yeah, so you know, if you want to risk it, come to us. But um uh yeah, uh the it's the kind of place where you can be gay, but it is you know, it's not completely at least you know I was there ten years ago. So and uh even in the last ten years it's changed quite a bit. But
Oh, there are gay bars now. I looked it up. There's quite a gay bars and clubs.
What role did family support and school play in Reese’s early queer journey?
When I was there
Yeah, there was just the one. The gateway that on a Saturday night it would turn into G bar, uh, which I often thought is a gateway to a bad night of decisions. It was like a and it was where like but often is the way with those types of places, it's just a regular pub during the week. So then some like old Bar flies would like turn up on a Saturday night and be like,
What? What
is going on?
What is this? So did you have like lots of other gay friends growing up? I d I mean I di
I think I I I did, but they didn't know at the time. Like I was I came out when I was fifteen, sixteen, so I came out pretty early and did that small town gay thing where when you come out as gay, you suddenly just turned the dial up to eleven and I was the gayest gay that ever gayed. But also you still are virtue, so you're like you're not even sure what being gay really is. You just kind of like, well, it seems this I've seen Priscilla, it seems Are there ping pong balls involved? I don't know.
So if you weren't kind of finding your um gay role models on uh, you know, the streets of Newcastle, where were you kind of looking for them?
Um, John Waters movies. Uh uh that's the thing. Like it I was again very lucky that I I came out just around the time of like uh like the internet obviously has been around for a long time, but I I YouTube was just kind of hitting its stride and like all those types of things. So I had to, if I wanted to find 'cause any queer people understand that when you realise you are that thing you suddenly it's just you become hungry for like content in your brain to be like, what am I? And you're like, you're talking earlier in the intro about finding your tribe. Like it is very difficult. W I I don't feel like I I found my and tribe sounds like such a douchey way of putting it coming from me, but um I didn't find it until I got to Sydney. 'Cause it's such a why like you think you are you see one stereotypical type of what being gay is and you go, Right, I'm gonna be that.
So I'm gonna have a big side fringe 'cause it's two thousand and six and I'm gonna listen to really camp all the time music and I'm gonna
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Reese first experience coming out as a teen in a small town?
0:01–2:12
2
What role did family support and school play in Reese’s early queer journey?
2:12–5:53
3
How did moving to Sydney change Reese’s sense of belonging and identity?
5:53–9:03
4
What challenges did Jason Ball face as the first openly gay Aussie Rules player from a rural area?
9:03–12:27
5
How does bullying in schools impact the mental health of rural LGBTIQ youth?
12:27–13:50
6
What online resources and community groups help isolated queer teens in remote regions?
13:50–16:10
7
How did local towns like Yarra Glen create Pride initiatives to support queer residents?
16:10–17:56
8
What practical advice do guests give for building a supportive network when coming out?
17:56–18:01