Happy Pride!

Time to celebrate!

I know it's a little late in the month for me to be yelling "Yeah Pride!" but I figure it's never too late for a little Pride :P

Which seems appropriate for me making a post about this. I didn't realize I was pansexual late in life. Well, maybe a little later than some, but for me it happened when I was 19. The story goes like this:

During my second year of college, I was sitting in the empty audience of our school theatre. I was an acting student and relaxing between classes. As I was sitting there, my best friend sat next to me. We talked for a few minutes before he turned to me, rather seriously.

We had a new transfer student move to the school that year, and we were all pretty close. She had gone to him to find out if I was straight. So he came to me and asked, "Would you be offended if she asked you out?"

The answer was no, because there is no time when I will be offended by someone thinking I'm interesting enough to ask out. His next question was life-changing.

"Would you be interested?"

And it wasn't whether I found her attractive or not. It was that the question made me question my previously held concept of what I found attractive. As a girl, I was told it was okay to admire the way other women looked. It was okay to think they were pretty or to compliment them on how they looked.

So why am I talking about late-in-life discoveries and transitions? Because when I was younger, I fell in love with a man. We were married for 21 years. So, to anyone looking at my life, I was straight. No one questioned it, and I rarely felt the need to talk about my sexual orientation. And because of that, I didn't feel connected at all to the LGBTQIA+ community. I didn't feel 'gay enough' to be included. It wasn't until I started opening up to the writing world that I started to feel like I was part of something.

So I'm very happy to be able to celebrate Pride this year (and every year) even if I get to it late :P So wave those pride flags high and keep exploring!

Chris Bannor

Fictional World Explorer