Thread by @LGBAlliance_USA

Another #WhenICameOut thread for #NationalComingOutDay

"When I came out the first time, I was a young, bisexual of man of 19, surrounded by a community that was thriving and vibrant. The historic Hotel Washington had not yet burned down, and I was saying 'queer' not 'bi'.

/1

"I would sneak into the bars of the Hotel Washington, from the scandalous Rod's to the upbeat New Bar. It was then that I first felt the joy of that community, but also first saw the schisms too. Yet we all wept when the Hotel burned down.

/2
ourliveswisconsin.com/wp-content/upl…

"I still remember the first time I watched Prince on MTV; I was wide-eyed and eight, and when he came out of the bathtub I knew, I just knew that 'I shouldn't be feeling like this!' Internalized homophobia came to me even before I knew what desiring a man meant.

#WhenICameOut /3

"In high school, I had had a few girlfriends, but it would be years before I kissed a boy, my senior year, in a coffeeshop. Nothing much came of it but the joy of it. At that age, that was enough.

#WhenICameOut /4

"By the time I'd done more, I still wasn't using the term 'bi', despite being steeped in a life with gays and lesbians, despite dating people who were bi. A friend came up and asked if I was gay, and I said 'no', I said 'queer' but didn't come out as 'bi'

#WhenICameOut /5

"I think of that era, from 19 through into my late 30s, as a time when some part of me never fully embraced my same sex desire. I had rejected my internalized homophobia intellectually but calling myself 'bi' was when I did so in my heart."

#WhenICameOut #NationalComingOutDay /6