Coming Out 101

18

Hey! I've never done well with telling personal stories, so I'm going to try my best.

The first time I probably questioned my sexuality was when I was twelve. I loved Glee and The Glee Project was on their second (and last_ season. One of the twelve contestants was Dani Shay. I had a huge, and I mean HUGE, crush on her. I cried when she was sent home.

It wasn't until the summer of 2014 that I really began to question my sexuality again. In January of that year, I befriended this girl at a STEM event held between our two schools. We were both fourteen at the time. We traded Tumblr URLs and began to talk through there. After a while, we stopped. I still noticed selfies she would post online and I would just smile. I sort of got butterflies and then I realized I was crushing on her. I didn't say anything at first because it was the first time I had a crush on a girl that was attainable. I admitted to that I liked her in August of 2014.

When the school year started again, I talked to my friends about my crush and said that I might be pansexual. If you don't know what pansexuality is, it's a (sexual) attraction to all genders. I guess I would be panromantic as well because I feel romantically attracted to all genders.

On September 8th, I officially came out as pansexual to my mom and my friends. My mom was not surprised, but she's been really supportive. I told my crush the same day I was pansexual. She liked me toom but that relationship went no where because I'm not allowed to date. We're still friends now and I support all of her relationships just the same.

I'm not out to most of my family. While my mom's side is really chill, even my religious aunt, my dad's side isn't. I'm not ready to be disowned at the age of 15. I'm out to most people at school because I don't care if people know and want to talk about people I like to my friends. I do have to keep it a slight secret because my cousin goes to school with me and I can't have her telling my grandma.

Since coming out, I have joined my school's new GSA and made new friends that I can relate to and talk about problems with.

Unfortunately, not all people are lucky enough to have a mom like me. I have friends whose families aren't happy with their sexuality or gender. I have a friends who is in the closet because her mom, while supportive of gay people, think that bisexuality is wrong because you can only like one gender. At me last GSA meeting, a college freshman who graduated from my school last year came to speak with us. He told me how grateful he was of is and that he was happy we started a GSA because when he was in high school, he didn't have anything like it to help him. He told us that when we go to college, things usually get better. He has friends there of all religions and they fully accept him of his sexuality. He told us that the small town mindset of our town is nearly nonexistent at his school.

If what he says is true, I'm holding on for college. I want to be able to be open and not have to worry about who knows.