Last week I posted an article about the terrible tragedy that occurred in Orlando, a tragedy that left forty-nine dead and many injured. Not only did it have an impact on those people and their families and friends, but it impacted the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, leaving us full of fear. Needless to say, this was something that I felt was important to talk about and it hit so close to home, but as the days passed I noticed that my family and friends who would typically share my article weren't and I knew why.

My family is not OK with my sexuality. It makes my mother cringe, it's something that we don't discuss even though the older I have gotten the more and more open I have been on social media about it. It's as if my family thinks by pretending I'm straight that it will somehow make me straight and with no pun intended I am here to set the record straight.

I am queer and the meaning of this word has taken on many different forms over the last few decades and at some point, it was seen as an insult, but the LGBTQ+ community has started to embrace it. It is a bit of an umbrella term but I use it as my identifying term. I like boys, I like girls, I like people who feel like both, and people who feel like neither. Gender has never played a role in my feelings for someone.

So here I am again, this time, a bit more publicly letting everyone know that I am not straight, I have never been straight, and I will never be straight. And you know what? There is nothing wrong with who I am. What is wrong is that people have such strong negative opinions about it, I can't tell you how many times I have been told I was going to burn in hell as if that phrase would make me suddenly change my mind, fear is not a good motivator.

Be who you are. Love who you love.