As I slowly drag myself along this journey of first coming out to myself, then to my husband, I’m thinking back to crying by little eyeballs out at a BoyGenius concert this summer. There was so much unrestrained sapphic and queer love contained in one amphitheater, and the sun set over the river in a rainbow collage and Lucy Dacus opened the concert by asking “Hey there, so how’s it being gay in ******” and it felt like for this one blissful night it was safe, and it was free, and it was perfect.

In the last few months I have looked back on that experience with both gratitude and sorrow - gratitude for getting to even partially experience the beauty of an affirming gay space, sorrow for not being able to fully embrace it.

I’m really struggling right now with taking the next step, and I think it would be nice to hear of your experiences in affirming queer spaces and feelings of euphoria experienced when getting to be fully, 100% yourself. I know it’s better on the other side, but will you share with me an experience that proved to you it was worth it?