'I was bullied for being gay at a top Greater Manchester school - one lesson changed my life'

Walking onto the grounds of the all-boys Bolton School on his first day of school in September 2007, Hadley Stewart knew things would be different for him. Quietly coming to terms with his sexuality at the time, he had gone from being surrounded by friends to standing out amongst the crowd for his ‘effeminate’ nature.

Hadley, now a freelance journalist and broadcaster, said he was bullied relentlessly for being gay - even before he had pieced together the fact for himself.

“It was name-calling and people using ‘gay’ as a slur,” Hadley, 26, told the M.E.N.

“Because the word gay had been used quite negatively towards me, I did find it difficult to use that term to describe my sexuality. I had a small friendship group at school but the environment at the time still felt like LGBTQ+ topics weren’t being discussed. It was quite an isolating experience for me.”

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Eventually, at the age of 15, Hadley came out to his friends on the day before they broke up for half-term. “I told one person who loved to gossip and basically gave them permission to spread the word,” he recalls. “I don’t think people were necessarily surprised about me being gay, I think the general reaction really was more that people were surprised that I’d actually gone ahead and accepted it.”

Thankfully, Hadley said the bullying eventually settled down because what had been previously used as a verbal punch to his gut could no longer be used against him. “There wasn’t really much point in the bullies calling me gay anymore because I’d already come out,” he said. “I think it kind of disarmed the connotation of things.

“I was able to find