The Rainbow in Flames: Being LGBTQ+ in the World Today
There’s a moment a lot of LGBTQ+ people have when we come to accept who we are.
The moment when we realize that we’re different from what society’s ‘default setting’ supposedly is when we step into the shoes of our identity for the first time. It’s frightening. It’s overwhelming. We’re taking on a lot more than just a label.
I went through that moment a few years ago, on the day I came out to my mother. It was entirely on a whim, something I blurted out without intending to — before I’d even decided if I really wanted to.
I’d been struggling with it for years before I said anything out loud. I’d come out to a tiny handful of close friends, inching a toe out to test the waters before throwing open the closet door.
And when I did, I felt my body start to quake with fear. It wasn’t fear of her response, my family is relatively progressive on this front. I was always raised to know that if I wasn’t straight, it was no big deal.
I wasn’t afraid of her. I was afraid of the rest of the world.
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