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I'm a white heterosexual guy, Grew up in New Zealand through the 80's and 90's - long hair on guys was not uncommon even in small town NZ, and I rocked full head of hair 1/2 way down my back...
I moved to northern England in 2000, I think I heard all the fag/gay/poofter... terms thrown at me, more often than not with vitriol.
Ps I finally cut it all off last year after having long hair for around 35 years
As a born and bred Geordie, I apologise on behalf of the northerners. The early 2000s were a pretty shit time around those parts for intolerance. I used to dress "alternatively", black fingernails, spikey died hair etc. And would get similar slurs thrown my way despite being heterosexual. I no longer live in Newcastle, but it seems a LOT better these days when I visit.
Wasn't quite Geordie land, I was based in Darlo / Middlesbrough area. Probably not too different.
Oof! Darlington, or Mordor, as I used to call it, was measurably worse than Newcastle for this! I lived in Ferryhill for a couple of years, so I'm familiar with that area. Definitely low on the list of places I'd recommend moving to in the UK!
Having met one or two people from New Zealand, you guys strike me as a tough and hardy bunch. If anyone could survive there, yous would have a good shot!
Ferryhill For the first 6 months I was staying in Eppleby, well done if you can place that dot on the map. I must say that a village that small felt very closed off and it wasn't until moving into Darlo that I felt that I meet 'real' people.
Got to admit, I had to check the map for Eppleby! It looks tiny, I can imagine that feeling very isolating! I'm still not sure I could refer to the residents of Darlo as "real" people, j/k 😆 I hope your subsequent years in the UK have been more pleasant :)