Emily Hutchinson

What Lesbianism Means to Me

I’m a lesbian. I’m 21 and I can say that with a fact I am gay. At 14 I learned what the words "gay" and "lesbian" meant. I guess I was just really naive as a child. At 15 I got my first girlfriend and told my family (before my friends). But for a long time I struggled with how to express myself. I didn’t know of any other lesbians and the one girl I did know I was dating. I had all these preconceived ideas that I had to be ‘butch’ and dress masculine to be a ‘real lesbian’. So that’s what I did.