Is there a need to come out?
Before you say anything, no, this not a joke but a genuine question. Skip the following 3 paragraphs of the actual question.
For the majority of my life, I've never questioned my sexuality. Until high school, the closest I got was me thinking 'Huh? I've never thought about it...' when my mom asked me if I liked boys or girls in 7th grade and I just shook it off.
But then in Junior year, there was this girl who transferred to our class who was open and loud about her bisexuality (and her sexual life with her boyfriend). That made me curious and then I went down a journey over the course of several weeks looking up everything on the internet about gender and sexuality, from flags and terms to personal experiences of actual LBGT+ people. I then put everything on the back of my head and went through my on-and-off questioning phase.
Fast-fowarding the process, I've settled myself as a bisexual female for the past couple of years. I don't care that much about the label itself but it seems fitting so I kept it. I don't consider myself pansexual because I can't call myself genderblind. I see gender, I just don't care that much about it and neither about what's in your pants.
And with that comes my question, "Is there a need to come out about your own sexuality?". All throughout, I've never felt a 'need' to come out. Nowadays, I know my college friends would probably be happy but wouldn't care that much and my mom, well, I don't think there's enough reason to tell her that at the moment. About the rest of the family, they live far away and barely send news so...
The only time I kinda 'came out' was to my cousin's wife last year. We were going back home from buying groceries and I asked her how she figured she was lesbian out of curiosity. I rambled a bit about how I wouldn't dating either boys or girls and she was fine and that was it. I felt a bit happy on saying it out loud but there was nothing much to it. I don't feel the desire to wear my sexuality under my sleeve and hang a big ass bi flag on my room (Though I still want to go to a LGBT+ parade). My sexuality is just that, a sexuality. It doesn't define me as a person so why do I must have everyone I encounter to know?
But then again, let me say this. This is my experience. I know that everyone is different and those who went through terrible things because of their sexuality and survived have the right to be proud and make others aware of it. That is what the LGBT+ movement is all about, being loud and proud of who they are in the name of those who suffered and defend the rights of those who are unable to stand up for themselves. Without it, we'd never have the minimal representation we have without being tagged as a fetish. But the war is far from over, so we need to keep on fighting. My desire to keep myself on the closet for now does not mean I'm not doing what I can for what I believe is right.
But that's just my opinion and I wanted to know someone else's thoughts on that. Sorry for the long text, I got carried away D:
