[This was originally a twitter thread but as twitter could possibly die (at the time of writing, Nov 2022) I’m reposting it here.] I’m clearly not going to get around to writing a blog post so instead here’s my thread on Section 28 that was in place during my time at school. Relevant now because of the rising backlash to LGBTQ rights in the US, UK and many other countries.
“What”, I hear you ask, “are you talking about?” Surely you’re one or the other? Typical bisexual eh, can’t sit properly on chairs and can’t make up their mind!* I previously wrote (on coming out) that I sometimes identify as bisexual and sometimes as queer and that I’d write about that in a future post, so here is that explanation—as well as I can give it without becoming too academic.
It’s a cliché that you don’t come out once, but you come out several times, sometimes to the same person, sometimes even to yourself. It’s also a cliché that as part of the coming out story, you report that you “have known since I was…”, and give an age. In my research career I have conducted a lot of long semi- or unstructured interviews with people about their life histories.