''By the time I identified as being gay, it was too late. I was already homophobic, and you do not get to just flick a switch on that. No, what you do is you internalize that homophobia and you learn to hate yourself. Hate yourself to the core. I sat soaking in shame in the closet for ten years. Because the closet can only stop you from being seen. It is not shame-proof.

When you soak a child in shame, they cannot develop the neurological pathways that carry thoughts of self-worth. They can’t do that. Self-hatred is only ever a seed planted from outside in. But when you do that to a child, it becomes a weed so thick, and it grows so fast, the child doesn’t know any different. It becomes as natural as gravity.

When I came out of the closet, I didn’t have any jokes. The only thing I knew how to do was to be invisible and hate myself. It took me another ten years to understand I was allowed to take up space in the world. But, by then, I’d sealed it off into jokes like it was no big deal.

I need to tell my story properly.''

— Hannah Gadsby, Nanette