My coming out story, to my family, was not the best. In fact, they had a negative reaction, and it was quite surprising given that I believed my family to be very liberal. But I assume that the open mind was only good for everyone else except for me and anyone else within my family.

Although they reacted harshly to my coming out, I was already out with my friends and anyone else who came into my life. I have, for a while now, identified as a Bisexual Afro-Latina American. It is who I am, and to deny that factor is to deny who I am. Unfortunately, my family would not understand that.

Frankly, I have come to accept that they will never understand who I am because they are not, nor will they ever be me, and that is okay. It is okay for my family not to understand me. Especially when I was always known to do "outlandish things", like express my opinion too often, speak out against something unfair, or go out and protest. I have been known to be the woman to do things out of the box and not conform to the expectations that they laid out for me. To have conformed to their antiquated ways would be to kill a part of who I am.

And it is ironic because I was always out to my peers, but never to my family. It is as if I believed that was enough, being out to my peers was enough. But it was not. My family did not know me. At least not all of me, and for a long time, I felt that they did not need to know that side of me.

For many people not having their family know about their sexuality and preferences may be okay. There is no judgment on it, in fact, I understand because I felt I could do the same. I felt that I could live with my secret. But it is the notion that it was a secret that kept me wondering, why must it be a secret? I haven't done anything wrong.

That was when I indirectly told my mother that I liked women. She saw a PRIDE safe space sticker which caused her to question my sexuality. She asked and I answered, however, I was dismissed and so were my feelings and my concerns. Thus, never again did I mention it to her, but I guess to her my sexuality was something that was an issue. Fresh. Simple confusion. Nothing that could not change eventually.

She would indirectly make comments such as, "now you seem to be confused" or "you are too old to be questioning yourself." She did not know the effects of her comments, so I do not blame her. She did not understand. Also, I do not think she will anytime soon. She eventually let out her frustrations in a horrible manner, however, I could not change that. Nor could I change the comment I received from my grandmother claiming that I need therapy. As if therapy would change me, but my grandmother came to the conclusion that it was who I am. And she is slowly grasping who I am now, I suppose.

I cannot be 100 percent certain, but I do know that sometimes we do not grasp or understand people or things that are different, and so we fear it because we cannot grasp the concept of it. Nevertheless, we should not neglect that bisexuals also come out too to their families as well as everyone else in the LGBTQ+ community. Yes, maybe they may not do it as often, but it does occur.

For now, maybe you personally are not ready to come out or invite people in as I would like to say. But remember to have a support system when you do because at times it can get ugly and for a while, it will remain as so. Yet, it can also be good and positive. Never be discouraged about inviting people in to know who you are.

Now, for those who came out or rather invited their peers in, we are free. We are free to express who were and to fully be ourselves. And that is what truly matters, our freedom. Our freedom to love who we desire whether it is men or women, we can finally be the person we have craved to be, and now have the ability to show it.