For those who are LGBTQ+, how did you find out?

[Faust]

@Luana.vasper 2020 Roblox... um
However I was like overreacting about it back then (not knowing the full scope while looking like i knew the full scope of LGBTQ+ oppression) to my grandmother who supported Trump

Now I done my research, I am a demigirl + genderfluid woman. I'm also omnisexual.

[sweetpuddin]

iono im just gay or somethin
uh like 11yo sheslashher me was like uh idk my life would b bettr if i was hehim so uh i did

i just kinda got alot woker since then
currently mlm an boyflux
(it/its or he/him preffered)

[topratedsalesman]

Transmasc, Omnisexual, Aceflux, and Polyamorus here.
I knew what being gay was when I was, 7? I knew when I was young
I went throught many sexuality changes [STILL AM]..
Started off as lesbian, then bisexual, then pan, and now, omnisexual!
I realized I was poly like randomly
And I figured out I was trans masculine through one of my partners who identified as tmasc and i thought "hey.. i'm not really a girl.."
i did go through they demigirl -> genderfluid -> agender -> tmasc though

[seal]

mine was when i met a masc lesbian irl for the first time IMMEDIATELY started liking mascs. i prefer men by a lot but mascs can be supacute

[ext.savy]

@seal OMGG SAME mascs are just so aughhh and with long hair like omgg(I have one at my school)

[Vulpinefox]

some older kid at my school was flirting with me and it felt so right, also, women scare me, breasts scare me

I'm gay, plain gay, I adore men, I love them, they hot af

[TH4T0N3TR4N5F3M]

One day i was at my cousins house and we were jumping on the trampoline and my cousin asked me why i wear skirts... in my mind i was like "OH SHIT IM TRANS!" so i js said casually "im trans..."

[Luana.vasper]

@GumiDow I had a similar epiphany with my clothes. I always felt myself fluctuating between wanting to present "curvier" or more feminine in general and wanting to present more "flat" and almost androgynous. Some days I find myself feeling nice in form-fitting clothes with lots of accessories and girly colors, while other days, I feel more "me" when I'm wearing a boxy hoodie and wide leg jeans so that my hips and chest stick-out less.

I realized this was a dysphoria problem later in life, but I never knew how I identified. I wasn't trans. I've never wanted to be masculine. Not quite nonbinary: I've always felt comfortable in femininity and more "girly" aestheticism, but most of the time, hearing she/her when others referred to me still didn't feel quite right on most days, though the pronouns don't bother me necessarily.

So, I struggled. I felt my dysphoria was more invalid. I felt like a strange "she-thing" instead of a definite girl. Like a feminine being, but not a woman. I went through a few flags throughout life. I started with agender, then I decided I preferred nonbinary, then I gave up on that and just said I was perhaps a tomboy. I went with tomboy for a while until I came across "demigirl" on the internet. It made me so happy, because while I was identifying as nonbinary and agender, they/them felt good when I heard it, but still not right. I don't feel genderless, and I identify with femininity, and demigirl allows me to express that. :)

With demigirl, I can now profess that what I think my official gender identity is is "she-being," and be proud of it. lmao

[french_fry_guy]

I fell in love with my best demigirl friend and then realized that all the boy “crushes” I had were actually just gender envy
(I’m pan romantic, transgender, and gynesexual)

[Luana.vasper]

This post is deleted!

[Luana.vasper]

@Faust Yeah, homophobic relatives suck. My whole family is like that except for like 3 of my cousins. One is gay, which my family gives him shit for. The second is trans-masc, which he was shamed for as well. And the third one... Well, they're a straight-ally. But... I want nothing to do with them due to uh... abusive circumstances. So. mep.

I have to pretend I'm not queer around my parents, and on top of that, act like their homophobic jokes are hilarious since they already found out I identified as demigirl like 2 years ago. I have to pretend I'm "reformed" and that I've "repented" (like I can repent something I can't help) of my sinful gender dyphoria.... Ugh.

[Luana.vasper]

@CH3SI My journey of figuring out my sexuality progressed kind of like yours.

I started out wondering if I would ever like anyone at all. I didn't start developing real crushes on anybody when others around me joked about liking people. It was a bit of a strange experience. I would pretend to like famous people so that others wouldn't find me weird (like my mom, who asked me if I was on "team edward" or "team jacob" since she was a twilight superfan for a long time). I didn't want to tell her I didn't like either and js wanted to watch the movie bcs she's always been very controlling abt my romantic life (she's homophobic and insists that I get married to a man and have children and that if I didn't, then that would be me betraying her?)

It was like that for a while. Until I started feeling strongly about fictional characters. LOL. At first it was male characters. I realized, though, that I still despised real life men and would never have crushes on any of them. Then, when I was around 10 or 11, I started liking female charcters. And then I started liking some of my female classmates: forming very close bonds with them and finding the idea of them being my girlfriend appealing. I had a few girlfriends throughout middle school and up into junior high. That's when I finally decided to identify as lesbian (only for a while, though). This was a anxious change for me bcs of my very conservative family. It felt right, but I still was told that it was a wrong thing for girls to like girls.

Lesbian was not right, however, since I still found myself very attracted to masculinity. Or at least, the fictional kind that I was seeing. So, I stopped identifying as lesbian when one of my pansexual friends explained to me what that was. It took me a long time to develop a crush on a man irl. I was like 14 when I had my first crush on a boy. That was when I realized it wasn't that I didn't like irl boys, it was that legit all of the boys I knew were disgusting, bullying, homophobic, cowardly, jerks (I live in the bible belt, if that makes that make more sense). So, yeah. I realized I liked men even more than I liked women when I could find a man who wasn't a j3rk.

This became very evident when I realized I wanted a boyfriend more than a girlfriend, and that I couldn't really see myself having a crush on woman and pursuing a relationship with one to the same extent that I would for a man (unless me and a woman js rlly click and I find her very cute lol). Though, that's ironic, because I've only had one bf and that lasted zero time whatsoever. I've had a lot more boycrushes now, though as compared to girlcrushes (I can and still do have those tho).

As far as who I find physically more attractive, both genders are equally hot. LOL. Though, if I had to specify a type, I really dig a pretty, almost feminine guy. :)

So, I kept going with pansexual even though I had realized by now that I actually had a preference for men and really only sought close, emotional bonds with women most of the time. Then I discovered omnisexual, and started identifying with that very recently. I still slip up and say I'm pan on accident. I did it when I was first creating my profile here on BDNS. Wrote "panromantic" instead of "omniromantic."

So, here I am. Went from kind of asexual (which is a whole other thing), to lesbian, to pan, to omni with a male preference. Kind of weird how I started out lesbian and then now I realized I prefer guys.

Being queer is definitely weird, but a good kind of weird.