You’re a Lesbian? No Problem!

Last week I found myself in a new course which, of course, equalled to coming out all over again. It’s a natural part of my life as a lesbian but it can be a little bit of an intimidating task when you know you’re going to be in the same class as these people for the next few months. I’m way too proud of who I am to let anyone else change that but you don’t want any hassle either. I’m sure most of you can relate to that.

I let it drop into casual conversation that I have a wife (civil partner) which surprised a lot of people. Why were they surprised? Because I’m a lesbian? Nope! It was actually because I’m so young. I’m 22 but I’m often told that I look younger. The fourth anniversary of our civil partnership is in September which was even more shocking to them. They were impressed by our dedication to each other at such a young age in these modern times and were genuinely happy for us because we have found true love. The fact that my true love is a woman was irrelevant.

Receiving such warmth and acceptance from these people really made me look forward to a future where those kind of responses are the norm. They were actually so accepting that they made me feel like there was actually nothing to accept in the first place. I was not seeking equality in their eyes because to them I’m already equal. Pretty cool, right?

Where’s Wally?

Living in rural Ireland over a long period of time will give you insight into life inside a goldfish bowl. People tend to know of people and even know a lot about them even if they have never spoken before. With such an environment surrounding you one would think that finding fellow lesbians wouldn’t be so hard. Think again! Imagine you’re an animal trapped in your section of the zoo and you can only see a limited number of your species around you… That’s the LGBT community of rural Ireland in a nut shell. So here I am trying to break to mould, stand out and speak as an Irish lesbian living her life “in captivity”. My hope is that in time to come it won’t feel like finding a needle in a haystack and that people will eventually feel comfortable enough to come out and scream joyfully about their sexuality on a daily basis, not just at Pride marches. I often feel like I can connect more with other LGBT people than I can with our straight counterparts. Most people in this community feel the same. How do you feel about your connection with other LGBT’s? Do you feel like it’s an unbreakable bond or do you think the sense of solidarity you once felt is long gone?