Pride Month- Where do you stand?

So...it's Pride month, and I thought I'd write something a little different. 

I've never really opened up about my sexuality- 

perhaps to my closest friends and family I've briefly spoken about it,

 but not publicly. 

What is sexuality? Should we let it define us? 

Sexuality is a long, confusing journey. For some, at least. 

I've met many people who firmly believe they are 'straight' 

and they might say something like 'I'm straight as a barge pole'- 

not that I like any language such as this defining sexuality, but, 

it's what I've heard from others. 

Okay, so for many, it's easy- you're a woman and you like men, 

or you're a man and you like women. 

My journey, however, has been somewhat bumpy. A long and winding road, 

as The Beatles might say. 

As a teenager, I always felt different. In life generally, 

I've never known where I quite 'belong'. 

As most of you know, I grew up studying performing arts- as you can imagine, 

this is very female orientated. In most of my classes, the major population 

were feminine- a few men, though mostly they were gay, or bisexual.

My brother and I- we have two male godfathers in a civil partnership. 

My friendship group has evolved into mostly women- 

I've not had many male friends. If so, they were either 

considering themselves gay, or transitioning.

Over time, I've decided I've become friends with these kinds of people, 

as they are the people I'm drawn to, or feel most comfortable with- 

or, to put it simply, who enable me to feel like my true self. 

I've had relationships with a wide variety of people- men, women, transgender. 

So, you might be wondering, how do I define myself?

Now, to my friends, family, and others I'm close to- I could say bisexual. 

On a deeper level, I would maybe say pansexual- 

what matters to me the most, 

is personality. I seem to be attracted to people I'm very close to, 

or have close friendships with- which has made things 

a little complicated emotionally at times! 

But have I felt the desire to come out to the world?

I guess I kind of am with this blog- but generally, no. 

Why?

I don't feel the need to give myself a label. 

Nor should any of you. 

Maybe to others, labels enable them to feel more 

confident within themselves, which is great.

But I feel that I would be putting myself in a kind of box if I 

defined myself to one thing, or had to explain constantly 

my mixed emotions towards myself and my sexuality.

For me, I think sexuality should be not about the physical gender of the person,

 but about who we are as people- and how we treat others. 

Be yourself, be proud to be you. X