I remember students participating in The Day of Silence through the GSA at my high school and never heard any opposition to it. I also remember there being age-appropriate sex-ed in my elementary school for all grades. I know for sure that in grade 6 we had open conversations about sexuality. The presenter asked if you can tell someone is gay just by looking at them, I said sometimes you can which was apparently the wrong answer. (Hello, gaydar! 😆)
With the increased attacks on the 2SLGBTQ+ community (especially the baby queers 😔), I’m constantly reminded of the privilege I had growing up in an environment where I knew I didn’t have to worry about my sexuality.
If you have a problem with the discriminatory laws being passed in the US, remember we still don’t have an updated sex-ed curriculum in Ontario. When you vote in June, remember that the Ford government removed the one passed by the Liberals. Teacher have to send home a notice ahead of time that they’ll be discussing these topics so parents can choose to excuse their child from the class.
I only put a label to my sexuality in my early 20s when I started thinking about dating so I kinda had to consider it. I didn’t care to date in high school nor did I have the time with all my sports. When asked my sexuality then I didn’t fall into heteronormativity though and label myself straight by default.
I’d say I could potentially end up with anyone but didn’t care to worry about it because I wasn’t dating. The level of privilege to be able to have such a laissez-faire attitude is immense. Zach would tease me about dating, as an older brother does, and would genuinely say guy or girl. He didn’t care about the gender because he was just bugging me about not dating anyone.
Along with being queer, I also identify as demisexual** which played a role in my vagueness in high school. (**I don’t have a sexual attraction to someone until there’s a deeper emotional connection. The analogy I use is that Tinder doesn’t work for me as I’d be swiping left and right indiscriminately, whereas with Hinge having more written answers, I can at least make an educated choice based on what I think their personality is.)