I feel like I take away from the LGBT community :(

Same here!! I forced myself to like boys without recognizing it!!
I've never had a crush on a girl until I was around 12/13. And my first crush lasted about 6 years and still now when I see her or she's close to me I get this feeling. Sucks!!!
I'm also afraid that this could be a phase but currently I don't think so.
Just live the moment. Not the future! If it's only a phase....well, another accepting thing.
But let's see.
You can always talk with me. I've got an open ear!

 

I always read about people knowing they liked the same sex at an early age or just feeling "different" but I didn't have any feelings for the same sex until my teens. ( 13 was my first sexual and sorta crush like feelings for a girl online and 15 I had a FULL BLOWN crush on a girl friend of mine that lasted half a year.)

Well I didn't question until I was 23, and I know that much is true for SO MANY OTHERS. There are people that knew that early and there are a heck of a lot more that didn't. Try not to focus on the things that don't apply to you.

I told my therapist about my issues and she gave me an example that when she was younger she HATED drawing and painting and made her mom do all of her art projects, but as she got older she began to enjoy and become a better artist and master her skills. She told me that even though she sucked at art as a child she believes she was given a gift to be a great artist and it was innate in her and came out as she began to like art more and told me the same could be applied for my sexuality.

Get a new therapist because that is an AWFUL analogy. Just...unbelievably bad.

She hated art and her mum MADE her do it.

Then she got good. She learned a skill. She is happy she has a skill she can use.

Your orientation is not a skill. You don't 'learn' to enjoy sex with men, you either do or you don't. You can learn to be GOOD at sex, but you don't learn to enjoy it or feel right about it.

She may enjoy art now, heck she may love it, but I am prepared to bet if she had got to this point in her life and she was as bad at art as she was as a child she would hate it even more than she did then.

 

Heh. It's funny hearing someone 16 worry about being too late to the party.

I've known to some degree since I was 10 or 11 that I was into guys, but I never had any full-on crush on a guy until basically a month ago. There were some minor proto-crushes but I never saw them as such.

I think some people know early, and some people don't. I also suspect that a lot of people who "look at the early signs" might pick and choose from their behaviour the most non-stereotyped examples. I bet a lot of straight folk could come up with a similar "early signs" narrative if they put their minds to it.

Don't think about how well or poorly you fit into the community. I mean, the community is pretty diverse, and comprises both the 5-year-old divas and tomboys up to the stubborn older folk like me who took a little more time to cook. Not everyone is going to fit into one neat little narrative, and that's totally okay. I do kind of know what you mean, though. Some of my friends I was most worried about coming out to were gay friends of mine that I've known for several years; like it might have been a slap in the face that I didn't come out earlier.

Anyway - it takes all kinds. You're just as much a part of the community as any of us here, whatever your story may be.

 

I never had any any indication of my sexuality when I was younger. I always thought I would end up liking guys because as little girls that's what we are "supposed" to think. My first crush on a girl was age 14. Up until then I always thought I was just a late bloomer in the "liking boys department."