I am 14 and I identify as bisexual. Next year I will be going to high school and I'm worried about dating, being involved in the LGBT community, and making other social ties.It's not like same-sex relationships are shunned in the high school I will be going to, and I know for fact that there are a handful of other LGBT students that already go to the school but I don't really know any of them personally. I was wondering if there were any ways to get involved with my lgbt peers while still being some what quiet about my sexuality. I'm awkward and painfully shy so it would probably be good if I could avoid being bullied and interrogated. I'd really appreciate any advice anyone could give me. Thank-you :help:
There are often heterosexual girls in high school GSAs, so I wouldn't be too concerned about being judged for joining a club if the student body isn't generally homophobic. Not to mention, it is usually only very conservative schools that make a big deal about being friends with LGBTQ individuals. If the students are used to having LGBTQ individuals around then they likely won't assume your sexuality simply for being friends with them.
It sounds weird, but gay people find each other. My youngest is 14 and also Bi. She was worried and I told her to relax. She now has a whole group of gay friends, that once she came out to one, the whole group found her! LOL If there is a drama club, join that also, as gay people tend to congregate there.(That stereotype is often true). Don't worry about dating and all that yet, it will happen in time, but first you need to work on accepting yourself. It takes all of us some time to be ok with ourselves.
I agree with Gen when he says that a lot of high schools that have GSAs often have a lot of heterosexual girls, so it wouldn't be a huge deal if you wanted to join. Also, Lipstick Leuger definitely has a point, too. I didn't know it until I was in high school, but some of my best friends that I had in middle school and in the beginning of high school turned out to be gay or bisexual. I didn't know it at the time, but I had surrounded myself with LGBTQ without even realizing it. It's sort of like LGBT people find each other without even doing it on purpose. What I found was really helpful when I started high school was that I joined an LGBT support group. It was a small group, and made up of only LGBT people. I was struggling with coming out of the closet at the time and I had not told my father. The group was recommended to me by a counselor, so I joined it. It was small, the four other people in it were juniors and bisexuals, and it was extremely nice to talk to them. They weren't part of our school's GSA (because they couldn't get open campus or couldn't find time to get to it), but we met in the small support group every week. I'm extremely glad that I decided to join because I now have four new LGBT friends, and every time we met we would only discuss what was happening in our lives and about sexuality and LGBTQ topics. If your school has something similar - a small support group maybe for those that haven't come out yet - I would definitely say it's a good thing to join to get more involved with people of the community.
