Finding Myself ~ Telling My Story by Jennifer Kate

Hi, guys. Let me start by introducing myself. I'm Jennifer, one of the hosts of Slap Shots Fired here on the Empty The Bench Podcast Network. This blog is gonna be different from any of the other blogs on here, and that’s because I'm going to be telling my story about how I came out.

Now to start my story off, I need to give a little bit of background about myself. I’ve known that I wasn’t straight from the time I was probably 11 or 12 years old. But at that time, I didn’t fully understand the LGBTQIA+ community. So I didn’t understand that if I wasn’t straight what was I?

I didn’t come out to myself or understand my sexuality until I was probably in 7th or 8th grade. If I’m being honest, going through those final years of middle school was tough. Kids can be very cruel, and a little bit too brutally honest, if I do say so myself.

Once I was in high school and started to realize that not everyone was straight and that I saw girls kissing girls and vice versa, I started to realize even more that I wasn't straight. As high school went on, I had female friends that I spent time with, and in my head, I would say: 'If I were to date a girl, I would like this type of girl.' And I thought in my head everything started to make more sense that I was Bisexual.

Once I was out of high school, and I had many friends who are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, they would always invite me to go to Pride events. Deep within myself, I was always scared to go because I hadn't fully accepted myself as Bisexual yet. For years, inside my head, this side of my personality was screaming to come out. But I was so scared to open myself up because I was afraid of what people would think of me or I would be judged for my sexuality.

I'm excited to announce that this year I will be headed to the Pride parade in New York City, and I'm so excited to experience my first-ever Pride parade.