There are 6 friends I've told and a room of people at Pride who know that I am bisexual, and I just really feel like sharing them because all of them have been different experiences and I'm in a chatty mood. The first person I ever told is my best friend in the whole world. I've always been open to her, and even at the age of 11 I told her that "if I met a girl I liked, I would date her and not care that she was a girl". The first time I met a girl like that, I kept it a secret, but it became more and more frequent so on Christmas eve I told her in a long emotional paragraph at 11pm. Unfortunately, I wasn't comfortable to just yell "Merry Christmas, your best friend likes girls and boys!" but luckily she was incredibly understanding and is still my go to person for talking about things like this. The next people to find out where her sister and two friends, because we were at a party and I was like "might as well just say it" and I'm very lucky to say it went well. I don't exactly recommend coming out in that way if you aren't sure of their answer, but one of the girls had also just come out as pan so I felt comfortable. After that came Pride. It was a Pride open mic night and I am a regular at the poetry slam, so naturally I had to perform. I got up on stage and did a poem about how family members say bisexuality doesn't exist, but if that's true then I don't exist. I might share it on here one day, I don't know. Any ways, I think most people in the room didn't think it was a big deal, but I have a feeling the host (who I've known for over a year now and is a huge advocate in the local LGBTQ+ community) got up and made a joke about her fiance being a "hummus-sexual" and it settled my nerves very well. It was a great environment for me to try coming out on a large scale, and no one treated me differently after and I am so lucky to have had that community to come out to. Then at Pride parade, I came out to two of my other friends, and their reactions made me feel all warm and fuzzy. My first friend and I were walking to the bathroom and I was really nervous and shaky, but we were dancing around and having fun and I know she's accepting of all sexualities. I just stopped and said, "I just really want to thank you for agreeing to come, it really means a lot. I came out as bisexual to some people recently, and I was so scared of coming to Pride with no friends but you're making it a really good day for me". As soon as I finished, she hugged me and told me she's proud of me and that she had an idea that I wasn't straight, but would never believe it if I didn't say it. My other friend was also at Pride, and I was for some reason even more nervous to tell her even though she herself identifies as asexual and has never ever discriminated against anyone. We were walking from an ice cream shop back to the festival when I just suddenly blurted out "oh also surprise I'm bi" so fast she had to ask me to repeat myself twice. Her reaction scared me at first, because she said "Emma what the hell?" and I was really nervous she'd tell me she didn't think bisexuality existed or something, but then she went "I called you a heterosexual in my snapchat today, why didn't you tell me earlier now I look like a liar?!" Needless to say, my coming out experience thus far has been better than I could imagine and I'm so lucky. I'm nervous to tell family and other friends, but so far I know I have support and it means the world to me. I hope everyone is as lucky as I am, and if you're not then I'm wishing you all the happiness I can and I'm here to talk if you need it(*hug*)
