Ever since when I was in Kindergarten, I would develop little crushes on boys. I would feel very weird about this feeling because I was a boy myself and I would think that boy who crush on other boys was not normal because the norm was opposite genders were suppose to crush on each other. I knew that I was different in terms of romantic interest when I was a young boy but I had no idea what was the specific term was for my attraction to the same sex and I did not what to identify as. When I was growing up, I had a lot of male friends that I would play with. I would participate in a lot of “male” activities where other boys would like to express their masculinity a lot. They would always tell other boys stuff like “That’s so gay.” or using the F word to call them out on something is not so masculine or weak. When I was little, I did not necessarily know what those terms meant at the time. It was not until people would question my sexuality asking me “Are you gay?” that I kind of interpreted what what my sexuality is and what it meant. I started to get the idea that homosexuality especially in males was looked down upon and not welcomed in society. I also remember one time when I was a pretty young kid, I was over my Uncle house and we had decided to go to church one morning. My Uncle had heard something on the radio while he was driving my siblings and I to church and the topic had something to do with homosexuality. My Uncle turns to us and basically tells that homosexuality is never ok and is not how God wants us to be like. Homosexuality back then was very frowned upon in society and I think sometimes Christianity can portray it as being a big no no which is sad because I am a Christian myself. Also, a lot of kids back in the day in grade school will torment and bully kids if they subjected any feminine traits in boys. I feel like because of this and the fact that homosexuality is not really talked about enough in society, growing up I always thought homosexuality had negative connotation so that’s why I ended being in closet about my sexuality until after High School when I was 18 (I am 23 years old now). One of the main reasons why myself lacked the knowledge other sexuality identities and sexual orientations other then my own is because grade school or society in general never really brought up LGBTQIA+ views at all because of the topic being very sensitive. I feel like it is not until more recently that TV Shows, movies, social media, news, and other sources have expressed and supported LGBTQIA+ more in society. Around the time when I was in High School, I would start to notice other boys who were like me as well girls who identified as Lesbian and transgendered individuals. I would see that some were very open about their sexuality and I started watching a lot coming out videos on YouTube across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Gaining more knowledge of the community encouraged me to finally came out of the closet to my family. I use to think homosexuality was like a crime in society, now seeing different sexual identities and sexual orientations and the support of LGBTQIA+ rights by straight people also, I feel that it is most important that people should be comfortable in their own skin at the end of day and never hide your true self.