Gay man upset about fake Facebook account

Imagine being ridiculed, discriminated against, cursed at; imagine obscenities being hurled at you in the road every day; and imagine being scared because you choose to no longer hide your true nature, your sexuality.

Hard to imagine? Well, that’s the life of Guyus Patterson, a cosmetologist and openly {{more}}gay male from the Central Leeward town of Layou.

A few months ago, someone whom Patterson described as a “former friend”, created a fake Facebook profile of Patterson and used it to paint the easygoing 24-year-old as a spiteful, flagrant, talkative and overly flamboyant homosexual, who was outing persons, revealing men with whom he had secretly slept, who did not want to be out of the closet.

The fake profile, bearing Patterson’s photo and name, created quite a stir on social media, as a number of the names mentioned were popular men, one of them even a local journalist.

But Patterson, originally from Chateaubelair, said that none of the persons mentioned during the Facebook rant by his detractor have ever had any relationship with him, whether friendly or sexual.

“Take for example, one of the names mentioned was a guy who calls himself Toni Montana, but me and him are not friends; I only know him being with one of my female friends from Layou, but I never met him in person… I never speak to him, I never chat to him on social media.

“It wasn’t me that created the profile… I kind of assume who it is, but I don’t want to call any names. The person who did it was someone close to me; it could be me and the person were friends and not friends anymore, so that is why the person did that, to pull me down,” explained Patterson.

Before the fake Facebook profile, a personal video with Patterson pleasuring himself was released on social media and quickly went viral, with persons claiming that Patterson had sent the video to a local married man and the man’s wife found it and sent it to other persons.

But according to Patterson, this is not true, as he never sent the video to any local person, much less a married man.

“I’m gay and I don’t deal with no Vincentian males, so there is nobody in St Vincent that I would send the video to. It’s not nothing like that. It’s not nobody in St Vincent that I sent the video for that to be published. It’s somebody that got my memory card. The person who send the video could be somebody I talking to in foreign and they send it,” explained Patterson, who thinks that a lot of persons hate him for whatever reasons.

The video and the fake profile were seen by Patterson, as attacks on him, just two of many.

“I don’t have luck with people, I just don’t have luck with female friends and gay friends, so I’m trying to keep to myself these days.”

He revealed that the video affected his thriving nail technician business at first, but it didn’t affect him emotionally or psychologically. What affected him was the fake Facebook profile, as persons were bombarding him with messages wanting to know if some of the names being mentioned were really his lovers.

“People who know me, know I would not do anything like that. I may have my ways, like when I travel, I like to be naked and expose myself [dress scantily]…I won’t be exposing myself here, but when I travel I would. I would not do that here because I have respect for my business and my clients.

“A lot of people may watch me and call me names, it doesn’t affect me, but my personal life, I leave it private. I’m not that chatty person that would point out persons I sleep with. I have to protect the person. The life, that I’m living, you won’t find a guy who I would want to be with who wants to be out there, so you have to keep your relationships discrete… so it’s a kind of a secret and as I said I don’t deal with locals.”

Patterson said that growing up, he always knew he was attracted to men.

“I think I born so, because growing up I just wanted to be around girls, trying to plait, playing round dodge, morale, all sort of girl games. I was never into the boys field, always into the ladies.”

He said that he was never molested as a child or anything of the sort and he allowed himself to explore his sexuality and was not forced by anyone to do so. He had his first sexual encounter when he was 15 and waited another two years before having another one.

“Growing up and hearing people talk, I used to feel like it was a bad thing and I didn’t want my friends to know who I was, but when I travelled I saw it differently and when I travelled and saw the life I decided to be myself.

“It’s very hard in St Vincent. I know people here right now who are gay just like me, but because of their parents they afraid to come out and not every parent would accept that.

“My advice to parents who have kids who are gay is to just love them because one day you can lose your child, because you don’t want to accept them for what they are,” offered Patterson.

He said that he has been threatened, but never been injured and once while dancing at a pool party, someone pushed him into the pool, so he no longer goes to ‘ghetto parties’, but to classy places.

Patterson, one of the more openly gay men here, said that he doesn’t think that he can be a spokesperson for gay people as, “many places I go, gay people don’t like me, so I can’t be a spokesperson. I don’t know why other gay people sometimes don’t like me. I associate with everybody because, first off all, I’m not attracted to good looking men; I rather ugly men”, Patterson said laughing.

The tattooed man who revealed to SEARCHLIGHT that he has a husband in Canada, as he got married in 2012, said that one day, he would like to be a parent, but he doesn’t know if that is possible, except through adoption.

He said that he used to go to church, but would feel guilty about his appearance, tattoos and piercings and not because of what the pastor said, so he stopped going.

Patterson revealed that most of his tattoos have meanings, with some representing his good side and some his bad qualities.

“A lot of people interfere with me, but I ignore them. I does be thinking that people do things to get a response, so I don’t respond.

“Some of them that trouble you and call you things like ‘fish’, but their name be calling in the same thing they’re saying about me. If you know that you do the same thing what sense it make for you trouble people and you know you are the same?”

He added, “I’m being myself and I think that the more people interfere with me, it build me up and motivate me. It’s like you face it, so it’s something you going to be accustomed to. Sometimes the best thing is put my earphones in and ignore people.

“I usually feel unsafe, so I don’t really go out. I don’t even leave work late,” revealed Patterson, who has four brothers and three sisters (one of whom died from cancer in Trinidad).

“I know when people read this they would say things like ‘hear this bulling dis ya’, but I don’t worry about that,” stressed Patterson, who operates his business in a building in Middle Street, opposite the Philips Bakery.

“I have a good customer base. People support you by your works, but some people support you because of your personality and in business you have to have a good personality no matter if you good at what you do, you have to have the personality. I have a lot of clients.

“I have a good personality, I’m not a rude person, I’m a people person. I’m one of a kind because I don’t think there is anyone like me.

“It’s hard in St. Vincent to come out of the closet. I won’t encourage people… you think it easy to live your life with people shouting obscenities at you in the road? I had many opportunities to do different things, but I ain’t regret that I did not take those opportunities because I would not have achieved what I have.”

Patterson said that in his opinion, Vincentians think that what gay people own, that they had sex to get it and that being gay is more profitable than being straight, but that is not the case.

“….they need to realize that I work for what I want and I can chose who I want to go with; nobody can prostitute me.”

The gay man said that countries have gay laws that should be changed, but he does not think that is possible in St Vincent and the Grenadines, as it might bring violence.

“There are police who are gay and pretend they are not. No police would want to defend a gay man and I think they need more female police officers,” said Patterson, who noted that most of the real “bad boys” don’t have a problem with gay people.

Patterson said that he just wants to be left alone and allowed to live his life like any other person.