Alright imma fill you in on something, duddy. At age 8-12 you can watch anime without worries, its a kids’ medium right? Well as you become a teenager you obviously start getting the big horny and people around you know that. Only by mentioning anime in that phase you will be branded as a pervert since anime = hentai in normie eyes. And most people know that connection since hentai is also on pornsites like pornhub and gave it a try but most of that shit on the normie sites is hardcore stuff like tentacle rape and bdsm and whatever. At age 18-25 it becomes more acceptable since poeple tend to feel empathy and dont always judge others based on taste, what teenagers obviously cant do. But the anime=hentai stereotype still exists, you never forget that. After you turned 26 and still like anime its gets worse again. Anime is a “kids medium”, thus representing kids in their shows, which basically makes you a peodphile. This goes on to an age where people think you have become senile and watch anime for nostalgia, so about 70. At this age they think its cute like a grandparent watching frozen with their niece or something like that. To summ it up, yes its harder coming out as anime fan than being gay (at least in 1st world countries (dont know the state of anime in middle east, though i dont think its being supported either))