They say it's National Coming Out Day, so here's another short version of my story. I "came out" when I was 29 in February of 1972 in DC as "gay" though I preferred the term "queer" or "pansexual" (though I was the only one I ever encountered using that term then) and others labeled me "bisexual" because I continued to have relationships with people who identified as "women" (cis, as they now say, and trans et al.).
I also called myself "a sissy" and still do, and "a thug" though I don't say that anymore. And a "punk" (before that was a thing) "and an intellectual" (rarely say that anymore). I could go on. I like the term "fluid" because I got in touch back then with my feminine side in a big way (wore dresses and clip on earrings etc. out in public (to make a statement, but I also enjoyed the way it felt and looked). I embrace all the categories that keep being named, both in me and in others, and am grateful for how full it has made life.
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