Your Story Of Pride.

[stag]

So I’ve Been Thinking of doing since you know.it’s Pride month! So what is your story? Like what is your story of pride and who you are? No matter your gender Identity or sexual orientation,we all have a story.

Let me go first so this isn’t out of the blue here-

When I turned around 12 I noticed that felt a small disconnect between me and my gender assigned at birth,I am AFAB. I felt a small uncomfortable feeling when my friends and parents called me a she and a her. I grew to hate the pronouns She/Her when they were used on myself and I started picking up on them being used more and more. So I turned 13 In November of that year,Resenting everyone who used She/Her pronouns for me,but out of fear of getting kicked out of my own home I hid- I laid in the closet for the next 3 months experimenting with different pronouns and gender identities,NonBinary,Agender and even demigirl- trying to see what I preferred over all. I turned out falling In love with he/him pronouns,they made me feel safe and empowered. I soon grew to know myself as a “boy” But I was still in the closet to my parents- My siblings already knew and they supported me,but weee forced to remain saying She/Her pronouns for me. Fast forward to March 2021. I come out to my father out a text message while he’s at work fearing the worst when he came home- He responded with support and love- I was shocked as I thought he held onto the hold beliefs just like my mother used too. A little note to add was that my mother was Anti-LGBTQIA+ at this time- I come out and it’s radio silence on her end. Then my idiot self basically got my self forced out of the closet with her. April 2021 my pronouns are in my TikTok bio as He/Him- Yes I know rookie mistake,she see’s it and shrugs it off until later that night,I’m instantly defensive and shut her down with no response to her questions. We refuse to speak about it for about 12 months until she sparks the questions up again. My mother had reflected over her own opinion on her ideas of gender identity and sexual orientation,Making a complete 180 on herself. I think I’m chopped liver at this point but I’m not… she says she supports me and that if I want a therapist to speak about it too. I obviously say yes (unlike the first time where I refused) She gets my own thought and ideas of what to do to help me transition over summer break- In the timeline it is April 2022,almost a full year after I outed myself. We get some things set in place and we agree that we will do things one-step at a time,this is baby steps for her. She asked for my name and preferred Pronouns and asks what she wants me to do when she applies me for Highschool and we settled on preferred name on work but deadname in the database- (As my new name is not changed at city hall ) it’s May now and we are chilling- our relationship is now back on the trail and we are working this day by day since we both have a lot going on in our personal lives.

Edit: My Sexual orientation has always been flip flopped,I started out as Pan then I was AroAce,I was Neptunic(Which I’m Debating On) but I’m looking in Polyromantic,I am Also debating if I’m Aro since I do develop crushes and I might just be Ace,Sexuality is hard-

[stardust.]

My story:

So a while back(January of last year I think?), I started feeling discomfort with He/him pronouns(I am AMAB), so I was thinking about changing my pronouns. I started feeling even more discomfort and eventually during summer break, I had an identity crisis. I stayed with He/him pronouns though UNTIL November, when I thought I came out as Genderfluid. Turns out, I still felt discomfort though, so I went back to using He/him pronouns. I came out right before I joined this site as Non-binary and all pronouns. So yeah, my story isn't very interesting(Just felt discomfort and the usual things)

Oh, and my sexuality. I thought I acme out as Panromantic Asexual in March, but turns out, I haven't felt any attraction to other Male people, so now I am going with Neptunic Asexual.

Thank you for anyone who is reading this and if you are scared of coming out, my dms are always open.

[Fang]

My story:

When I was in the first year of highschool, for some reason I can’t remember I realised I had never had a crush (I’m Aro/Ace) which I just put down to bad luck for some reason. Anyways, it just sort of clicked one day that, hey, this is being Aromatic/Asexual. I had a little problem with people thinking I’m making it up, but it’s all good now.
Oh and I have zero idea if I identify as male or nonbinary

[JackHunt_17]

I've known my whole life pretty much that I was a boy. From when I was 5 years old I would always give myself the online name Hunter, and always put my gender as male. At school I'd hang out with the boys, and feel uncomfortable being called a girl. I hated pink, hated dresses, hated girly things, and by the time I was 8 (beginning of quarantine), I came out to my brother (back then he was still closeted). He supported me and helped me find who I was. I didn't end up using the name Hunter but if you look back at my old posts on here you'll see I said that was my name. I go by Jack IRL though.

I'm AFAB trans male btw if that wasn't clear lmao.
--
As for my sexuality... I'm not quite sure yet, but I think bi, maybe straight, maybe gay though. idk.

[Spotty]

I do not have the energy to type out everything rn, and im still coming to terms with stuff and figuring it out, but here's a timeline of sorts:

Sexual attracion:
Sometime around June 13 2021: I was bored and thought I'd draw some animals with the colors of different pride flags, and I basically googled 'common sexualities and over the span of a few days I began to find the term 'asexuality', and what I found felt surprisingly familiar to me.

Summer 2021: I looked more into Asexuality since it felt so familiar, not like a new concept but like the name on something I already knew, and I did identify as it online, but I hadn't even thought about telling any of my friends about it

26th February 2022: Big time-jump I know, but it takes me a long time to start thinking about myself in a sort-of new light like this, but during that one week break from school I started thinking about it more and more, and I after I had started writing in a diary I got a much better perspective on myself. And this day I crafted a little *black ring out of paper that I then covered in glue (so that when it dried it was a little bit like plastic) and used a black marker on it. Im still wearing a black ring though Ive made a few new ones that fit better.

*A black ring on the right middle finger is often used a symbol of Asexuality / The Asexual spectrum

April 7th, 2022: The day after Asexual visibility day, and the first time I ever came out to someone, with that someone being my diary. But it was the first time I ever wrote it down and it existed somewhere outside my head.

April 21st, 2022: We went over different sexualities in class, and our teacher had set up a little game where he would show us a label and we would have to explain it to one person who hadn't seen what it was. Anyway, the first ones were very simple (pansexuality, bisexuality, heterosexuality, and so on) and they went by easily, but for the last one, we were asked if we wanted to try on a more difficult one as our class voted yes. Well, the term was 'Allosexual' (the opposite of Asexuality, and what is considered ''normal'' the same as heterosexuality is). The term basically exists because of Asexuality, and though between like 95 and 99 % are Allo, it's still mainly known through the Ace(asexual) and Aro(aromantic) communities. I was the only one who raised my hand and I got it right, but I remember that as being the first time I would have felt truly ready to come out, since we later went on to discuss the sexualities further, and it was the first time my sexuality had been validated outside the internet.

About May 30th, 2022: I had planned to come out to a person I trust deeply, but don't see all that often (so if something went wrong it wouldn't be as big of a deal for me) but I couldn't seem to come up with the right words, and constantly finding reasons not to start that conversation (like that we didn't have enough time, there were too many people around, and so on), so I wasn't as ready as I though I was.

I don't hide the fact that I'm ace, I just haven't told another either. Maybe if someone comes out to be about being aro/ace, or recognizes what the ring means I might tell them, but we'll see.

UPDATE! I came out!

June 14: I was at a camp for about one week, and one daily activity we had went as such: Everyone would sit in a circle made out of chairs, and the leader-adult-person would say a statement (such as 'I like pizza') and if you agreed you had to stand up and find another chair, then we would talk about it and all - something I liked since I enjoy hearing other people's thoughts. Anyway, one statement had something to do with relationships and such, and one girl who I didn't know from before mentioned she was aroace in the conversation :)

It was a very minor thing I know, but I got so excited over it I had to go and run a little bit after it to get out all my energy. After that I finally got the courage to come out. First I asked one of my closest friends (who was also at the camp) to go outside with me for a bit because I needed to talk about something, and after it went over well I did the same with my other freinds, and had planned to continue so but it was already like 7pm so i left it there.

But the next day I mentioned (in that same activity thingy) that I don't feel sexual attraction at all. After it me and that aroace girl talked about asexuailty and such, and it actually felt really nice to have a conversation with someone who got what it was like and all.


Romantic attraction: (ill update this soon)

[shaae_26]

so.. I'm confusing to say the least. lets start with gender identity since that's something I'm sure of right now.
Short version: AFAB, now identify as Demiboy He/Him, He/They since August 2021.
Long story:
Starting from when I was 5 years old, I think, I acted like a tomboy. Favorite colors were black and red, never liked my hair down, constantly asked for it to be cut short like a boys, wore boys clothes, or at least "boy's colors" if I still had to wear girls clothes, and always hung out with guys. I think I just told everyone I was a tomboy and I was chill with that. I always wrote stories in the perspective of guys though, related myself with guys, dressed up as males for halloween, befriended dudes, and fit in with the guys, till like 4th grade. Then I started to get bullied for being a tomboy, and for hanging out with guys, and for having masculine traits, like I always liked to bang my hands on my chest like a gorrila, but I was still doing this when I was 10 and most of my friends had started getting chests (I didn't, I was a late bloomer), but I got criticized for doing that. For as long as I can remember, I always used to say to myself that people only like to look in the bathroom of their opposite gender, since they were curious when the door was open, so I would always have myself look in the girls bathroom to pretend I was curious. I also tried to pee standing up sometimes and always wished I could use the urinals. I didn't think anything of this though and kept it all to myself. There's some other things about young me that I do not need to share that are more masculine traits that I had...
Up until 4th grade everyone didn't mind me being me, as I said earlier, but then the guys I used to play soccer with started to make fun of me, and tell me off, telling me to play with the girls instead. I tried to help one of my guy friends who fell in soccer once and he yelled at me that he wanted one of the real boys to help him. He's bullied me since. It was from that day on though that I think my gender dysphoria really started. I started to hate being a girl and constantly wish I was a boy. I would dream at night what my life would be like if I was a guy, and in those dreams this kid never bullied me, and people actually liked me for who I was. I would also dream that my whole life's been a dream and that one day I'll wake up as a baby again and be a boy and live my life happy. but I never said anything and never really thought much abt this, as I had never heard of transgender. (though this was 2018 and the world was starting to open up). I don't know how old I was, but whenever I wore hoods after I was like 7 or 8, I started getting called a boy, and buddy, by strangers which felt awesome. There were 2 instances at airport securities where my sister was told to "send her brother through", which felt amazing, and then instantly embarrassing as my mom would pull my hood down and say "SISTER!" to the person. I also started to play online games when I was like 7 or 8, and always put my gender as male, and my name as Owen, bc my parents said thats what they would've named me if I was a boy. (I don't use that name now since its my gf's deadname and I wouldn't do that to her, even though the name was on my mind when I was picking a new name).

When I was 10 (an older 10 than in the part above), I first heard the term. It was on a Supergirl episode where there was a transwomen. I barely thought about it though. My mom explained what it was, and she told me she had a friend whos brother was transgender (FtM). I thought it was interesting but still only thought of myself as a tomboy.
When I started 5th grade I kinda had a feminine-masculine phase. I had 2 friend groups, one of all girls, and one of all guys. The girls kinda bullied me a bit and I never really fit in but I felt like I had to, so I tried to fit in, and the guys understood me, they were like me, but also had all known each other longer than knowing me, so I was like a third wheel. (Well, a 6th wheel). I started to wear bras every now and then even though I didn't need to, because I felt like I should be a girl. My whole 5th grade year was awkward, with me trying to figure out if I was a boy or a girl, and those dreams I talked about earlier re-occurred nearly every night, about me wishing I was a boy. Huge gender dysphoria here, but I STILL didn't realize I was trans lmao.
Then there was 6th grade. my 6th grade year was 2019-2020, so it was the COVID year. I started to refuse to wear any type of girls clothes and my mom eventually gave in. The deal used to be 3 shirts from the boys section, 4 from the girls. But I would never wear the girls shirts so she let me get boys. I'd been wearing girls boyshort underwear since I was 7 or 8, but not boys underwear and I'm still not.

6th grade wasn't really any different with my gender identity, as I still didn't know much abt the trans community and LGBTQ, only a lil abt gay and stuff. I got my first boyfriend in 6th grade, stuck w/ him till I transitioned and he became a jerk about not being gay. One of my friends came out as trans, which kinda made me think abt myself again. i asked my mom for a short haircut again, she said when I was 18 and moved out. For picture day she didn't make me wear a dress, but made me wear a girly shirt. It was an upgrade but I wasn't happy. I started to identify online strictly as male, and started to realize that I was trans (even before the pandemic). I started to realize that it wasn't normal to always have these thoughts and always think of yourself as the other gender, and always put yourself as such online, so I started to research. And then the pandemic hit. And I was exposed to the wonderful world of LGBTQ+.
By august 2020 I started to question my gender for real. I didn't think I was trans yet, somehow, and my brother had joined this site, inviting me to as well so i did (in sept). From there I started to think about myself. I think I identified as genderfluid, she/they, when I first joined here, and when I first started 7th grade. By october 2020, I started to have consistant mental breakdowns, and couldn't figure out who I was meant to be, but just knew I wasn't a girl. Then in March 2021 I said I was a girl again, and thought I was just lesbian (despite HAVING A BOYFRIEND). That didn't last long. By may 2021 I was out to my school and karate dojo as mirror-gender, and used she/they pronouns, but preferred people to use whatever pronouns they thought they saw me as. (only a few ppl used he/him).
By June 2021 I met my #1 supporter atm, a trans guy who transitioned in 2018 when he was 13 (and im 13 at this time). He was 16 then, but he was really amazing. he helped me find myself, feel comfortable in my gender identity, and was always there for me. The only thing was, he had supportive parents and I didnt. He tried (and still tries) his best to help me with my mom though. He was really chill with me constantly changing pronouns, and when I found myself as demiboy, he/they, on July 27th, 2021, he was there for me. Like 8 days later I ogt my haircut and chose my new name (Shae). Couldn't start using it though, bc my mom. She originally said I could, then changed her mind. my therapist used Shae for me, and they/them pronouns, as that was where I was at. I loved it. In september for school, no one recognised me. I still used my deadname though, but came out to all my teachers as non-binary, they/them. Most were chill.
I went to a camping retreat with my karate dojo and was put in the 'queer cabin' with my #1 supporter from karate, which helped me a ton. We all got really close, and I told them my prefered name and pronouns, and they were all chill. 2 weeks later I started to use they/them pronouns and Shae at karate and I felt great.
Around october 2021 I started to experience dysphoria. I had done my research on binders, and had started to watch trans youtubers since August, but didn't really have dysphoria yet. But then I started to get it. And my mom being who she was, wouldn't get me a binder. So I made my own. I know its not safe but I used 2 sports bras to bind. It hurt but worked. Used that till February, when I started to layer with tank tops, compression shirts, AND sports bras since dysphoria was getting worse. Did that until present time pretty much.
March 2022, I came out as trans male to my karate dojo and started to use he/him pronouns. My #1 supporter from there was naturally awesome about that, and he became rlly chill and nice around me, I think cuz he feels less alone now as he was the only trans guy before me. There are 2 enby's.
Currently still using he/him, he/they pronouns and Shae, but I finally got a binder so yay. (:

And yeah... thats my gender story. Sry its like crazy long lmao.

Will add sexuality story soon.

[Quasar]

TW FOR DISCUSSIONS OF DYSPHORIA AND DYSMORPHIA

I have always struggled with my body image. Whether it be my weight, my hair, my eyes, you name it, I most likely have struggled with them at certain stages of my life. Though it has always been a present problem, when things really started picking up was when I started middle school.

When I first was starting to realize I wasn't comfortable with my biological gender, I was in 7th grade. I remember I was doing a project on lgbtq+ rights, and I was reading a book on what it meant to be transgender. There was a part of the book that focused on non-binary people, and I thought thats what I was. I realized that I didnt identify with being female, so I decided to start going by they/them pronouns and the name Eli. 

For two years I started going through a transition to start presenting more androgynous. Though my male transition had not started yet, I still began changing everything I could so that I would appear more masculine. I even started asking my mom to let me take hormone blockers. Ever since the beginning, I had always planned on eventually going on T (testosterone), and getting gender affirming surgeries. At the time, I viewed myself as a non-binary person who expressed myself in more masculine ways. 

Even though I thought I had found out who I was, it still felt off to me. It felt right for a bit, but the feeling gradually faded. For months I hid this from everyone, including my therapist and significant other. I was afraid they would get mad at me for telling them one thing and then going against it. Turns out, everything ended up being okay. 

When I told my mom and therapist, they were incredibly supportive. I started looking at exclusively male names, and I eventually settled on the name Lucas. Surprisingly, my mom got used to using my preferred name and he/him pronouns pretty quickly. In the two years I identified as non-binary, my family struggled with using my name and pronouns, and in the past three months of being a male my mom has completely started using my preferred name 99 percent of the time. Slip-ups are of course to be expected, so Im not really that upset when it happens. Still, that doesnt mean Im okay with being referred to as female. It genuinely makes me uncomfortable.

Last year I got my first binder, and I have gained a bunch of male clothing to help me pass. My hair was cut into a mens hairstyle, and ive been learning how to deepen my voice. Last week my mom took me to the doctor to talk about me potentially starting hormone blockers, and soon Im going to see gender therapists to determine whether they think I need them or not.

Thats basically my experience summarized into a brief explanation, but there are some things that I left out.

My sexuality is a lot more simple of a story haha

In 7th grade I thought I was bi, then pan, then just gay, the in 8th I went back to bi, in 9th I was bi and for a short period I thought I was straight, and last year I discovered I was Polyromantic Asexual