Welcome back!

As you may know, June is international LGBT+ pride month. To help me raise awareness about what coming out and being LGBT+ can be like, my friend Z agreed to write her experiences for me to publish. Her experiences were similar to mine and if they are to yours too, note that you are never alone.

She wrote:

‘In honor of Pride month, I will talk about my experience being in the LGBT+ community. I’ve known I liked girls since I was very young, but I didn’t know I was ‘different’ from the other kids due to my lack of exposure to the LGBT+ community -- I didn’t even know what it was to be gay and I thought I was just strange.

When I found out about the LGBT+ community, I was 12 and in secondary school. I first came out to my friends and people in my school, they were surprisingly fairly accepting (barring the few comments here and there) and helped me discover my identity.

A year or two after my coming out, some older students started a lunchtime club called SAGA (sexuality and gender association), to help LGBT+ kids like me and them to feel safe and loved.

At first I was too afraid to go in because even though I was out to my friends and my class, I wasn’t out to my whole school and teachers. But a friend of mine encouraged me to go and we went and created many more friends from the LGBT+ community and friends who weren’t. Even though I’m out to most people I know, I’m still not out to my family. Hopefully one day I’ll gather the courage to tell them and hopefully they’ll accept me.’

Thank you for reading,

Happy pride month!

~Jaya x