He was patient, open, and revealed to me his own journey. What I discovered through his story is that he never had a choice over this. He was born that way, and discovered at a very young age that he was attracted to men. The same way that I was attracted to women.

At the age of 24yo, my best friend revealed his homosexuality to me. Surprise quickly subsided to fear and rejection. Our relationship was strong though. We had already so much mutual respect for one another that I was not ready to lose this friendship over my initial fears.

And on the surface, this definition is an easy one to adopt when you have never met anyone openly homosexual, and that all of this remains at a theoratical level. After all, it seems so natural to trust, often with passion, the nest that grew us and our values.

Reflecting on this early period, I am not surprised that so many of my Catholic friends are homophobes today. I grew up surrounded by these Catholic values which brewed the idea in me that anything diverging from heterosexuality was a perversion.

I perfectly remember that day. I was 14 years old, and our local priest just went through a long tirade explaining to a class of 10 of us how perverted and a capital sin was homosexuality. It is in fact in that class that I discovered the very concept and the word itself.

The recent events that are shacking up Poland in relation to a growing homophobic sentiment has had an incredibly depressive effect on me. So much that I decided to share my personal journey around homosexuality in hope to awake at least a light of compassion for this community.

Once you understand why so many LGBTQ+ do meet suicide, you start to understand why they are so passionate about providing education early on. No – it is not about converting your child to become one of them. It is to provide support if your child *is* one of them.

Here is the reality of this community: a lot of them suffer terribly in silence. Suffer from their difference, bullying or governemental policies. Without education and mentorship, many will meet suicidal thoughts. And unfortunately, many more will act on it.

Just pause and make this thought sink in. The old-school catholic church has unfortunately spent many centuries trying to educate you otherwise. Why? I have no idea. The search of another common enemy? Like Mr Duda’s speech this weekend?

You see, far from what some politicians may try to tell you, you do not become gay. You are born one. Let me break this down for you: as any heterosexual has no choice but love the opposite sex, the LGBTQ community has no choice but to live the way biology ‘wired’ them.

During this journey I have met many members of the LGBTQ+ community. What do I keep from these interactions? Love. A desperate research for love. But also fear, depression and suicide.

So let me talk about love. I have been privileged to live in many countries and cultures before settling in Poland for 7 years now. Australia for 1 year, Ireland for 2 years, California for 2 years and France, where I am from.

- Comparing this ‘ideology’ to communism – trying to devalue and retract from a long and slow education about them. Yes – Duda is surfing on hate. I do not know this man. I never got involved into Polish politics until today. But what I read today is nothing but feeding hatred.

Looking at Mr Duda’s weekend’s speech, he hammers these 3 points: - Dehumanizing the community by calling it an ‘ideology’ – creating an emotional distance. - Entertaining fear by involving ‘a protection of the children’ as if this ‘ideology’ was pedophile?!

Starting a childhood project to build a N scale coffee table. Is any of you into model trains?

What an incredible year for Lucky Duck Games. 2 smash hit Kickstarters...

I have seen episode 9 and really enjoyed every bit of it. That is it :)

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season with your loved one! Here is another teaser for what is coming up in 2020! 🤩 #bg #j2s #boardgames

Duck’s out of the bag! 🦆 😂🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 We have a new sponsor for @VariablePlayer and we are so stoked. We love you @vvergon thanks for believing in us! Check out our newest episode here to hear about all the games we played (apple #podcast link): https://t.co/0x9PlsIA98

Mila is loving this thing! VR has gone soooo much further with this Oculus Quest. No pc, no console, just an independent unit on your head that does the job! 😍