Well... I grew up in a rather small European town, where no one ever talked about gay/lesbian people. It wasn't an option, not because it was "wrong" or unacceptable... simply everyone assumed that everyone was straight, and if someone wasn't then that was their thing, people just stayed out of each others personal business.

When I was 12 y/o my family and I moved to U.S. For few years I couldn't attend school so I spent most of my time learning English and hanging out with a friend of the family. I was 12 at that time and he was 38 ( a kind of unlikely friendship) after getting to know him better I wondered why he didn't have a girlfriend, so I asked him and he answered "I'm gay" (what surprised me was my reaction to him being gay. I never thought; "ewww that's gross" or something of that sort. I was simply happy for him, and that's because I didn't grow up in the society where people criticized something they knew nothing or very little about. thought of something "new" didn't scare them, like it scares so many here.

anyways... back to the story. Over time this friend of the family and I became great friends, and one night talking about "gay issues.. etc" something in me just clicked and I began to wonder if maybe I was a lesbian. The thought of that didn't freak me out, I was kind of excited to find out something new about myself, and hey if I turn out to be a lesbian then really what is so wrong about that!? (I was 13 at that time)

When I was 14 I started this small alternative school where everyone knew one another. over time I developed a crush on one of my friends. I tried to express my feelings to her but could never move myself to actually doing it, so instead I wrote letters describing my feelings and desire for her. those letters were never meant to be seeing by her, I wrote them to relief this burden. I was never ashamed of whom I was, I was scared of the reaction these people, my new friends who I met only a few months ago would have. I needed to have friends. At that time especially, I had no idea how this society perceived gay/lesbians. people, so I just kept this part of myself TO myself. anyways, a year or so goes by and I am still drooling over that same girl.

One night I go over to a friend of mine (who was also her friend) for a sleep over. We had fun, everything was great. Next day her and I are getting ready to go shopping (or something like that) so we leave and about an hour later I realize I forgot my backpack at her house, she just said don't worry about it, I'll bring it with me to school tomorrow. so anyways the next night my 'crush' spends a night at that same friends house.

*fast forward to the next day*

I get to school, for some reason very early, and as I'm walking down the hall I see a friend of mine walk in (she was the only person who knew about me being a lesbian, beside my 38y/o friend) so she walks in and first words that come out of her mouth, the words that I will never forget are; "they know!" I was like; "they know what?" that you are gay. At that moment I just went in shock, and all she said to me was they found the letter in your backpack, the one addressed to (the girl I liked) and as soon as she said that, through the main door walked in a bunch of my friends one of them was that girl. I mean it was like one of those lame-bitchy-we-own-the-whole-damn-school kind of walk-in. anyways... so to make long story short... for the next week or so I got called every name in the book, lost all my friends, the principal found out, my parents were called in, where out of embarrassment I denied everything. The only person I could talk to at that time was my 38y/o friend, who told me; tomorrow you're gonna put your self in the best mood you can, you're gonna wear the hottest clothes you have, you're gonna walk in that class room with your chin up and you're gonna ignore every remark that comes your way... oh and btw I'm gonna give your my cell phone, expect a call from me" so next day that is exactly what I did. And it was great. I remember the look on everyone's face, like; "what happened to her?" and as he promised, the phone rang and they were shocked to find out that I had any friends left.

Two weeks went by and ha ha ha everyone of those friends came crawling back asking for my forgiveness.

I'm 18 now... and am still friends with my, now 43 year old friend. I consider myself to be pretty lucky, because I never felt that being a lesbian was a negative thing. I don't mind people looking when I kiss my girlfriend in public, it's actually more exciting. How many people pay attention to straight people kissing? and those are just tiny examples. If your family is extremely religious and is non-accepting (among other things) tooooo bad, cause their missing out on the reality of this life, don't let that stop you from being a complete you, with them or without them present!