Tell us...I knew I was...

[Tommi]

Starbuck

Thanks for your post Starbuck.Sounds like this time you found someone that wasn' abusive, so, that has been safer for you, even though you are left unfulfilled. Maybe he will meet someone and move on, or, you could just move on. I am not a good one for love lorn advice. I screw up wet dreams. Best wishes, and I'm glad you found the Planet.

[WolfyOne]

Wow, reading these stories makes me remember my own journey. As a kid, I was always a tomboy. Growing up in an era where children were sheltered, I had no idea what gay or homosexual really was. Now that I'm older and look back, I'd call myself naive back then. I dated boys because it was expected of me. I never had sex with them until just before I married at 17 1/2. What I found out was I didn't like sex with a man. I found it disgusting and it hurt. After about 6 months and me avoiding the bedroom when he wanted it, made me realize something was wrong. A year into our marriage, I was introduced to 4 women in a country band. I found myself instantly attracted to one of them and couldn't pinpoint why. From that day on, I had a lot of self exploration. I finally walked out on my marriage. It was through those women that I was able to figure out who I really was because one of them was kind enough to let me stay in her spare bedroom. So many times the women called me a baby butch and I knew not of what they spoke. At 19, I finally sat down with a good friend and a bottle of wine. We talked for hours and she brought out the person I was meant to be for the rest of my life. I have never once looked back, no reason for self doubt. I am who I am and I guess I always was this way but the way I was raised made me deny it because I didn't understand it way back then. I will agree that the intimacy I share with women is so much more than what I shared with a man. Thank the powers that be for self exploration along with good friends and wine.

[dixie]

I had kind of an odd upbringing, so in some ways I'm surprised at how I turned out and some ways not. Allow me to explain (this might be kinda long, sorry...)

I am a poster child for the effects of antibiotics while on birth control...lol My mother did not want kids, eventhough my dad did. When I was born, my mother decided that if she was stuck with a kid, she'd rather have a boy. My dad was ok with this since that meant I would be his little sidekick. So...I was pretty much raised as a boy. I wore boy clothes (even little suits and ties), had a short "boy" haircut, and was called "Jake" or "Chris". (My name is Crystal.) My dad would still buy me some Barbie dolls, but for the most part all my toys were tonka trucks, Hot Wheels and GI Joes. I begged for an Easy Bake oven but never got it because that was a "sissy" toy. I played football, wrestled, went hunting and fishing with Dad, drag raced and did all the "guy" stuff. We still went to church on occasion, so I looked really darn funny in those big poofy Easter dresses with that short hair. (I also HATED those damn dresses...lol) It wasn't until middle school that other members of the family gave my folks a hard time about it, so they started buying me a few girl clothes and makeup, and got me to grow my hair to shoulder length. By 10th grade I had embraced my "female" side (much to my mother's displeasure) and became a definite raging teen girl...lol I was still a tomboy, but I wore skintight jeans, makeup and grew my hair to my waist. As I've aged, I've noticed that (especially the last couple years) I get more and more feminine. In a way, I enjoy some aspects of it, but at the same time I hate it and feel kinda torn inside about it.

I still have some issues that stem from this. I am not really comfortable being with "the girls". I feel extremely self-conscious being around other feminine women, whether they be femmes, lesbians or hetero. I do not feel as though I belong. I do not feel as though I am one of them. I have hardly any close feminine friends because of it. I am much more comfortable hanging out with butches, transguys and cis males. I literally still feel like "one of the guys". Sometimes I do wonder how I ended up looking and IDing the way I do, instead of more butch or even trans.

Ok...how all that ties in to the subject at hand... I sometimes wonder if being raised as a boy started my fascination (love) of females, which began at a very early age. In elementary school I was always sneaking off with the cute lil girls and kissing them behind the building...lol By high school, I had "secret" girlfriends while I was still dating guys. My cousin was pretty much ran out of my town when he came out in his 30s, and after seeing how devastating that was to him I swore it wouldn't happen to me. Also, being raised in a strict religious family, I was afraid of what they would think of me, or if they would disown me. I knew that it was required of me to be a "normal" girl and date "normal" guys. So that's what I did. I even married one and had a son. Didn't take very long to figure out that I couldn't keep doing that to myself. I was miserable and hated every minute of it, eventhough it wasn't really a "real" marriage. (He knew that I was into women, and he was bi himself.) I finally came out, and was very surprised at the fact that my family was very accepting of it. Most of them said they had known all along.

From there I started trying to discover more about who I truly was, and what I was looking for. I called myself bi for a little while, because I thought that's what it meant for my situation. I had been married and had a son, but I was attracted to women. The more folks I met, books I read, forums I went to...I realized that my definition of self "evolved". (I also discovered the b/f world, trans folks and many other folks I didn't realize were out there.) I wasn't actually bi because I had zero attraction to cis males. I wasn't really a lesbian because that just didn't seem to fit, and felt kind of like a box (although sometimes I still use that term because it's easier to get the point across to those who are not familiar). I identify as a femme sometimes because it's kinda close to who I am, how I look, etc. I joke and say I'm 51% Femme/49% Butch cause it is sometimes a battle raging within me. I do not put others into a box. I do not discriminate in my dating choices (other than cis males), but I have discovered that the best partner for me is someone who is fluid (and confident) in their sexuality as well. Mainly, I'm just queer. Simple (and as complicated) as that.

Sorry. I guess I wrote all that because of the way the OP worded their first post. I tried to cover when (and how) I discovered who i am...

[Starbuck]

Originally Posted by Tommi

Starbuck

Thanks for your post Starbuck.Sounds like this time you found someone that wasn' abusive, so, that has been safer for you, even though you are left unfulfilled. Maybe he will meet someone and move on, or, you could just move on. I am not a good one for love lorn advice. I screw up wet dreams. Best wishes, and I'm glad you found the Planet.

Tommi,

Thanks so much for your kind words. It is my true wish that he could find someone to move on to, that way he wouldn't feel so "left out". But either way, I am in the process of moving on like I said in my original post, I am miserable in my current living situation.

[SimpleAlaskanBoy]

Fell in love with my Senior best friend when I was 14 & a freshman. Of course, she was straight, but at the time that didn't matter. Dated a coupla guys before that, but it didn't go very far.
"Came out" to my parents at 18 as bi.Didn't really see myself that way, but I thought it would be easier on my mom to take.
Spent the next few years trying to figure out where I fit in. Was I butch, femme, andro? I tried a lot of id's but none of them fit right. Then I found out about transmen. I read a lot. Struggled a lot. Realized that, even though I didn't know ever since I was a kid (I have a chronic health problem I was born with and was in and out of the hospital a lot) and enjoyed Barbies and Hot Wheels, I was a guy. It sure would explain the fact that I was uncomfortable with my body after it hit puberty the first time!
Came out to my mom again at 23, while she was in another city/state tending to my younger brother who just had major surgery ( I sure have great timing!) Started to realize a renewed interest in men. Struggled.
Started T about 3-4 years ago. Like the changes it's made to my body, totally prefer "Sir" over "Ma'am" in public but still hate the shot.
Slept with a guy, realized I liked it and that was okay...that it probably had to do with the fact I was comfortable in my own skin for the first time in many years...it also helped it wasn't a creepy older man who are what I seemed to attract my first puberty around.
Id as bisexual now, although it's not exactly something I want to share with my mom. Prefer relationships with women and something a little less than that with men when I am single.
Complicated but then my mom has always said I take the hard road, on everything!

~SAB

[asphaltcowboi]

ahh my family told me when i was very young that i was diffrent. so i grew up being who ever i wanted to be .. be it GIJO or roy rodgers i lived as i felt and it was ok then in my teens i stressed about coming out to my family cause i never new what any of the words (gay,lez,fag)ment. lol so when i did it wasnt news to them other then my older bro saying you just now realizing this?.. stressed for no reason!

[cuddlyfemme]

I pretty much knew I was gay when I was in high school but in my Senior year of hs, I fell in love with a good friend who was also gay. I didn't know. I also knew I was a Femme when I was really girly and didn't fit into the "lesbian" catagory and the friend that I fell in love with explained it to me. Coming out to my family was hard and for a long time my mom wouldn't have anything to do with me, my brother, dad and sister had a hard time with it but came around much sooner. How I realized I was Stone is a whole different story