From the film Listen to me: Romik, 32
I hated the word gay in the past. But I wasn’t afraid to come face to face with myself. I said if I felt what I am feeling, then that is me and I need to come to terms with it.
And there came a time, that I thought I was on stage. I was playing my own role that was not of my own liking but I was playing it to please the society.
I had a girlfriend. We were engaged to get married. Although we were together for three years there had not been any kind of sexual relationship between us. I tried avoiding it because I had no sexual attraction toward the feminine sex. My close friend woke me up saying : “Romik, what are you doing? You are on the wrong path. It’s not yours.”
I put a stop to that relationship. Because of the lies I was living, I was going to abuse others and destroy someone else’s life for my own peace of mind in favor of a society that wanted me to be how it pictured me to be.
I realized that it was time to share my real life with my family. Like all other Armenian families, it was very hard for them to accept it and have not still accepted it. I am certain that they are concerned more about the pressure of and by society.