The Many Voices of Pride: Dan’s story
“I suppressed who I was, my gender and sexuality.” (Uber)
The LGBT+ community is made of many different identities, all of which are as valid and important as the others, and every single one deserves to fly their flag with pride.
For Pride 2019, PinkNews has teamed with Uber to tell stories that show how important visibility is to a diverse rainbow of sexual and gender identities.
This is Dan’s story…
What was it like for you growing up?
Growing up I was always really feminine. If my mum had a dinner party I’d come down in a bra with two oranges as breasts and put on a show.
I had long hair and was terrified of getting my hair cut. Everyone used to call me a girl and thought I was a girl. Then I got nits and had to shave my hair off!
As I got older and went through secondary school, that’s when I started really being like, “Oh no I’m a straight man.”
I suppressed who I was, my gender and sexuality. I didn’t know what I was so, I tried to blend in to survive.
It wasn’t until a lot later that I flourished and understood a bit more about who I was and I started to explore.
What does it mean to be genderqueer?
If there are seven billion people in the world, how can we identify as one word? It’s very restrictive.
Genderqueer for me means that I fit somewhere in this grey area. This grey area is somewhere I’ve been for a long time.
I thought I had to be at either point A or point B, that’s why it took me so long to come out and find out who I was. I thought “I don’t fit here.”
I realised that genderqueer is the grey area and it’s a great place to be.
How do you feel about the genderqueer flag?
It’s amazing there are so many different flags. I’m genderqueer and there’s a genderqueer flag too.
There’s so many ways of identifying ourselves.
Throughout history we’ve always been here, we just have language and visual representation now to show that.
These flags are an amazing way of finding yourself and communicating who you are to the world.
Read all the personal stories from the Many Voices of Pride campaign here.
