The month of June sparked the modern day LGBTQ+ rights movement in 1969, which now represents Pride month for the entire community. LGBT is an acronym meaning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. The term sometimes is extended to LGBTQIA, to include queer (not specific but an umbrella), intersex and asexual groups. People all over celebrate the liberty of being their true, authentic selves and even straight/CIS people share this freedom with them through numerous events and festivities.
For some, the first major step to living in their truth happens through “coming out”. This means revealing your true sexual identity to your close family and friends. In honor of pride month, The Prevailing Woman got a chance to speak with some of the LGBTQ+ community about their coming out stories in hopes to inspire someone who may be struggling with this phase of living in their truth.
Titus – “I struggled for years just because I was so involved in church. It was always a big pressure with me being nervous about what people would think about me in the church personally, not even outside the church as far as family and friends because I knew they would accept it and still love me for me. The people of the church may see me up there singing on some Sundays and then here I am living a gay lifestyle something that the Bible preaches against, I really and truly struggled with that for years. One thing that helped me is talking with my Mom and God. My mom said something to me that still sticks with me always. ‘It’s okay, just be yourself. God still loves you and can use anyone.’ That alone helped me build up confidence and just helped me walk in my truth and say this is who I am and whoever is for me will still be in my life after I tell them and whoever isn’t won’t be! My family has accepted it but it is new to them especially my mom, she doesn’t quite understand as much but she’s willing to learn which I love! One thing I’ve learned after coming out especially being a believer of Christ is that God looks at the heart and not our outward appearance, and he does everything for a reason, he has placed me and surrounded me with some of the most non judgmental and genuine people and I’m grateful for that! So it wasn’t easy for me to come out just because of the church and ‘image’ and always hearing in church that youre ‘going to hell if your gay’ but I would definitely say for that little gay boy that’s scared like I was because of the church image, don’t be! God still loves you and like my mom said could use you!”
Varen – “It seems like it was a lot easier coming out to my family then my friends. My friends had to kinda find out the hard way because I was in kinda in a domestic situation. Especially because I do have a daughter so everybody expected me to be male when I knew for years when I was in grade school I knew a woman would take my heart. I know it’s hard but if you honestly trust one person in your life, tell them first and ease your way into telling the world. Sadly we still in a world where some people still don’t respect women or men being attracted to same sex.”
As the world continues to spread knowledge about the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month, putting in time to understand the issues they are passionate about shows you care. There are so many resources from books to guides from LGBTQ nonprofits, as well as movies and documentaries. Knowing about the history, culture and activism will help you be a better ally. Happy Pride Month from The Prevailing Woman!