I grew up with minimal visibility of the LGBTQIA+ community. I had only a vague idea that White gay men existed because of fleeting representation in media and hushed conversations in Christian communities. When I was 14 years old, I met a female classmate who identified as bisexual. Even so, it was another three or so years until a close friend came out to me as bisexual, and a few more years before a Christian friend came out.
I often think about what my journey as a queer woman would have been like if I saw LGBTQIA+ women represented in the media and my communities when I was growing up. With the self-awareness that I now have, I can look back on various experiences in my life and better understand them through the lens on my queer identity, but I didn’t have the language or understanding while I was going through them. Coming out to myself at 20 years old and publicly at 24 years old isn’t *that old,* but there’s still grief for those experiences I didn’t have. I wasn’t able to identify all of my experiences that I now know were crushes, I wasn’t part of a GSA in high school or college, and didn’t know that Christianity and LGBTQIA+ identities were compatible.
I’m very passionate about visibility and representation so that other people are able to integrate their identities earlier in life. In particular, we need more representation for individuals with intersectional identities. Even in 2020, a significant portion of our LGBTQIA+ representation is White, cisgender, able-bodied, neurotypical, and mono-sexual (attraction to one gender). Everyone deserves to see themselves represented.