[Wizard.]

Coming from Cornwall I surprisingly didn't experience much abuse in the streets, maybe the odd thing from young teenagers or drunken men, but I always felt safe and comfortable there. When I moved to Manchester I always thought it would be great, there's a better gay-scene (or more gay people) so I thought it would be more widely accepted here. However, for the last 4/5 months I've been here nearly everytime I go out into the city centre I get homophobic abuse either shouted at me, whispered about me or weird shifty stares at me. Examples of abuse I.e "fag" "puff" etc the generic stuff. The other week a Turkish man spat at my feet and said nasty things, and by the way it's always men. I don't know if they're trying to be funny with their friends or something stupid like that, but it's always men.

I don't know if it's because I wear makeup or that I'm with my boyfriend or that I have a sense of fashion that seems to "invite" this sort of abuse, but it's starting to get to me. I usually ignore it, say that it doesn't get to me but it does. I'm paranoid everytime I go out that people are looking at me, that's if I go out at all because my anxiety has gotten to the point where I don't go out much anymore.

I'm moving to Liverpool for University in September and I'm worried because if someone says something to me my boyfriends not going to be there, and I'll run my mouth if someone says something and that leads to fighting... If I don't say anything then an inside rage builds up inside me. It also saddens me that in this day and age I'm still receiving abuse in the streets, people say we're lucky because it's not like Russia here where it's really bad, and yes it might not be as bad but trust me it's bad enough. I was just wondering if anyone else may have experienced this in the UK too and what to vent about it lol. Sorry this has been a long post.