So It's Pride Month!

[Penni]

Hello all!

It's June which means Pride month is here again! This can be an exciting and empowering month for some, but incredibly complicated and confusing for others. While I don't know how many members on Tapas fall into the LGBT+, how old you are, if you are out or not, but what I would like to take a moment to do put the statement out there that if you need some positive vibes then please feel free to vent or celebrate if you need/want to.

I'm bisexual and it was a long road of hiding, questioning, doubting, and shaming myself before I came to accept who I am and be proud of it, and I went through it alone for a long time. It's a terrible feeling so I want to offer my support to anyone who needs it. Whether you want to PM me or just share (positive or negative) don't hesitate to do so! Regardless of who you are! (That means all of you straight folks too!)

There is an incredible amount of supportive people in this community so I would like to extend the offer to create some positive and supportive vibes around here too!

[ISNEKO]

I spent the last year really torn about my identity as a guy and was 100% sure I wanted to be a girl and transition. It fucked my head up a lot. I felt like it was an impossible task. Then suddenly the idea seemed far fetched, like I didn't want to be a girl. Then I started liking boys if they looked like girls. My fucking brain was a mess.

Then one day I was sitting at the dining table making friends with The Kraken and my cat meowed at me. And I was like, "You're fucking right! Fuck this shit! I'm just a fucking guy who likes all kinds of shit and I don't need to worry about anything! Fuck!"

But really he wanted me to feed him.

This sounds like I made up a story to be a dickhead but that's what really happened. So I'm bi, I guess? Not attracted to masculinity at all, but it don't matter to me what you got down dere.

This got kinda weird.

[Penni]

I don't think it's weird at all! When you grow up in society telling you this or that is normal and your body is telling your something different it can be really frustrating and complicated to sort those feelings out. I'm glad you were able to find a spot that made you comfortable. I've heard of those who wanted to transition and ended up regretting the decision, and that is even more complicated! With your cats help (maybe?) you came to a solution and that's great! Sometimes you gotta go through those fucked up periods to figure stuff out.

[Thesleepypencil]

I always get so excited for Pride month!
My job is centred in the village of my city, pride flags are everywhere, our roads are painted rainbow, and we have two pride parades a year. So being able to experience pride in all it's glory. It has been a long road. And it's longer still.

I'm extremely open about being Bi on the Internet, and i end up self projecting that Bi on all of my main characters. But i don't think I've ever talked about how I've had to deal with being Bi. Ever. And usually in my stories i write worlds i wish i lived in for my characters. Where sexuality isn't a big deal, where people don't have to experience hate for who they are.

Looking back. I'm pretty sure i had crushes on girls since i was like 9. I was very much aware of girls. But I lived in small town and had a homophobic mother. So I only knew gay as the term "Happy".

Made this a month back.

Anyway. After that it was this weird feeling. I knew i liked boys and girls. But at the same time i never acknowledged that i knew.

I remember watching Katy Perry sing "I kissed a girl" and realize that holy shit this is a thing. That this is something others also experience and it's okay. Until my mom, upon hearing the song. Turned of the tv saying "lets not watch this trash." On which i learned to the extent that my mom hated gays.

When i entered highschool i got surrounded by better people. When i mean better people i mean nice to me. (Not knowing I'm Bi). I remember when my friend chris came out as gay. And some many of us banded together to show him we loved him and supported him no matter what. But i wasn't that lucky. Since my best friend in the group was terrified, (actually terrified) of wlw. And chris himself constantly talked about how Bi's are just sluts and or faking it.

I chose to stay in the closet. And i stayed in the closet all of highschool, and all of college. Which was sad. In college i was away from family and small towns. I was in the big city. I went to the lgbta+ support group. ((AS A "STRAIGHT" ALLY)). I fell in love with the most wonderful woman and if i wasn't in the closet i would have 100% have married her one day because geuss what? She had loved me back.

I now live 8 hours away from my family. Everyone who knows me here knows I'm Bi. I'm open about it. I share an apartment with my married lesbian roommates. I'm friends with the owners of the cities central gay bar. All of my friends i kept from college have also come out as Bi/Pan.

I'm still also in the closet. No one from highschool knows, and I'm still on good terms with my family and they don't know, we go camping the weekend of my cities big pride party weekend so i never go. I don’t know what will happen if i ever decide to settle down with anyone who isn't a man.

I don't want to sound sad. I'm happy with my sexuality, I've never thought something was wrong with me, even as a kid i knew their hate was their problem.

I geuss i wanted to just let it all out. Let people know that i get it. And that I'm also open to listen.

Also my advice. That Ive learned ovwr the years.

There always seems to be rules about being lgbta+. That it's a all or nothing being in the closet as one of the rules. Or that you Have to experience dysphoria if you're trans

Those rules are bunk. Just be a good person and Just be you. Everyones different a d everyone will experience things different.

[LoboSong_Hitaka5Ever]

I'm asexual and aromantic and learned what those terms were when I was in high school (9th grade) I've always known I was those 2 things, I just didn't know there were words for it. That happened at age 13-14 and I'm 27 now and have never changed my mind on who I was. I am really proud to be ace! I didn't have any of those "I'm broken" thoughts though; I was perfectly content knowing I would just never date or have sexual/romantic feelings for anyone. All I need is family and friends who love me for me in my life

[leecomics]

Yay~ I'm gay and incredibly blessed to have a supportive family, friends and gf.
It's a long journey to find, understand and accept yourself.

Happy Pride month y'all.

[375]

Haha welp, happy pride month everyone! Legendary Pansexual here slow dabs Not too sure what to say here except my friends know Im pan but my family....YIKES. They'll learn one day.

[dawgofdawgness]

I’m gay and I have to say that I’m lucky to be living in a liberal and accepting area - here the LGBT population is pretty big and I’ve gotten no shit for being gay at all (partly because obly 3 people know but EH!)
I’m so glad that I’ve found a community on Tap where everyone can do whatever they want and love whoever they want without someone breathing down their neck.

I think my current mission is to make as many wlw webcomics as I can before I die or my hands stop working. We’re making huge progress having such a large portion of webcomics have gay/bi guys as protagonists but I think we need more stories about queer girls

HAPPY PRIDE

[silverraven0]

I'm clear that I'm an aromantic, I might have some kind of crush(?) when I'm smaller but the thought of dating never really cross my mind, plus, a lot of s*it happens and I hate body contact and the thought of me having sex disgust me. Sometimes when I'm looking at coughp*rn*coughcoughcoughcoughcough*, the body make me feel uncomfortable and I feel pure disgust toward it (am I weird? Hmmmmmmmmmm).

As for my own gender identity and sexuality, I'm still looking into it. Maybe I'm asexual, but I'm not that sure. just pray that my fam didn't force me to a marriage

Edit: Forget to say HAPPY PRIDE MONTH EVERYBODY! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! (um, not like that, but you know what I mean)

Anyway, have a nice day.

[spadesart]

i've been raised with super homophobic christian parents, so i started off super homophobic too, and went through a ton of denial and pushing away feelings when i started to have a crush on a girl. it took a long time to come to terms with my bisexuality but after coming out online and to my close friends i'm more at peace with myself. it hurts that i still have to hide it from my parents for my safety but it's nice having people to talk to.

i also started having a weird relationship with my gender a couple years ago, i don't really feel like anything at all. greygender is the closest to describing my relationship with my gender but i started going with nonbinary a couple months ago. i also have kind of a weird relationship with sexual attraction? i know im bi but idk if its my depression affecting my attraction or if im gray ace or what.

[DiegoPalacios]

As for my own gender identity and sexuality, I'm still looking into it. Maybe I'm asexual, but I'm not that sure. just pray that my fam didn't force me to a marriage

I never understood the presure to marry someone. Marriage should never be forced, that literally ruins the purpose of marriage. Marriage should be something all the partners agree to do. Hope they respect your decision.

Have a nice day!

[silverraven0]

Arranged marriage is a pretty common practice in my country, so, yeah, I don't know. But if it happen again, I probably won't know what to do. Maybe just get out from the house again.

am I ruining the happy thread?

[Kura]

I am on the spectrum though I won't specify exactly as I prefer to keep it personal. I'm not as comfortable with being as completely out in the open as some of ya'll.

I've never been to pride, but I'm thinking of talking to my sister and going together with her this year. Duno, we'll see how things go.

[feardeer]

I'm nonbinary (he/they) and gray ace/pansexual. I often feel like I'm still learning things about myself and my queerness, so I usually just refer to myself as queer because everything is confusing haha.

I made the mistake of coming out to my family several years ago and it didn't go well at all. Now we all just quietly pretend it never happened.

I really don't have any kind of support irl, but online I'm fairly open about my sexuality and gender identity. I'm not sure what I'd do without that outlet. I'm very grateful for all the other lgbt+ people out there, and I hope everyone has a fantastic pride month. Celebrate yourselves! :>

[DiegoPalacios]

oh, that is awkward.....i wish i had advice to give about it. Are you in conditions to make a living by yourself in case they try to marry you?.

am I ruining the happy thread?

Don`t worry, i think this thread is all about support

[DiegoPalacios]

wishing everyone a happy month!

[jurinova]

When I was a kid, before elementary school, my big brother and his friends one day came up to me and asked me "Are you a hetero?" They had smiles on their faces and though I had no idea what the word meant I knew something fishy was going on and assumed it was a bad word. So, proudly and loudly I shouted "NO!" and they all started laughing and calling me a homo. I honestly didn't know at all what was going on, but turns out I was right. Hah, the joke's on them!

Specifically speaking I'm pan/bi, though I prefer the term queer since it includes both gender and sexuality under one word (since I'm not cis).

Anyway, happy pride to you all!

[teacup_creations]

I'm asexual and biromantic but it took me a long time to a. realise that that was a thing and b.accept it.

I actually started off thinking that maybe I had really high standards when it came to who I was sechally attracted to since nobody I had met ever really made me feel that way. But at some point I found the artist dyemelikeasunset who had created so many LGBT+ characters and who was kind enough to answer the asks other people had about sexuality, and I found out that being asexual was a thing and it just clicked that I wasn't 'broken' or 'weird' for not finding anyone attractive... I was lucky in that aspect.

But accepting that I was biromantic was a lot harder for me. I grew up in a Chinese Christian community and for the longest time I had just accepted that being straight was the only thing that was right and any crushes I had had on my female friends were just the devil tempting me. It took me going off to university and leaving that community to finally come to accept that I was probably attracted to girls as well.

Anyhow, I wish everyone has a wonderful pride month and I hope that you all know that you're wonderful people and your gender/ sexuality will never change that fact <3

[silverraven0]

@DiegoPalacios about that, I don't (which is probably my shortcoming), but lets move on from that, I don't want this thread to be filled with my sob story

Anyway, since it's Sunday, I draw this, but honestly, I don't know how to color and it took me a painful for (or five?) hours to draw this on my phone (I've no tablet).

Just thought I'm gonna share with you all.

Once again, Happy Pride Month, everyone.

[NanettesClouds]

So I'm Bi (probably pan actually?) and I recently transitioned to using they/them pronouns and working towards being more gender-neutral I guess. I come from a religious family, and I'm open about my queerness and have been for awhile, but I've never actually properly celebrated pride, I think I'm gonna change that this year.

Something that I've been kinda dealing with lately is that, because I was a pretty devout churchkid and was growing up in a toxic religious environment, for awhile I used to be pretty queerphobic. As I got older I started to realize how fucked up a lot of religious bigotry was, that realization among other things lead to me losing my faith (thank god), and from there I sorta gradually realized that I was queer as I opened myself up to other possibilities and learned more about myself.

Queer representation in media, and later a lot of the comics that I read, were some of the big things that helped me realize how brainwashed I was and helped me come to terms with my identity. Maybe someday one of my comics will help some other churchkid realize that they're queer too? That'd be cool.

Shifting to being gender neutral has been a bit of a challenge for me, I don't really know what I'm doing, but I know that I feel better about myself now than I did when I identified as a guy.

I dunno what I'm getting at, kinda just wanted to share my story. I'm really grateful for the other lgbt+ people in my life right now, I don't know what I'd be doing without them. Happy Pride Y'all