Anonymous Interview

Anonymous
Age: 24
Identified sex: Female
Identified Orientation: Lesbian

Are you aware of the supports available to the LGBTQ community in Lethbridge?
We have a Pride festival… and isn’t there a thing at the water tower?

Have you ever attended any events or supports?
Only the Pride Festival.
She talked to me about the experience and described it as being a scary and a new experience. She defined it as being eye opening and a whole different world was revealed to her providing new horizons. When she had attended the Pride Festival she was just beginning to explore herself in the light and was dating her first girlfriend. Anon was very open with her experience and provided insight to me about how her first girlfriend had both opened her eyes and broken her heart.

In your opinion is the Lethbridge community accepting of LGBTQ?
No... well maybe besides the flag flying during the Olympics.

When did you begin to become aware and acknowledge your sexuality?
I was about 15 or 16

What was your high school years like?
knowing she had gone to a catholic school and thinking back on others experiences I was curious as to how her sexuality had effected this time in her life. She began describing it as being a terrible experience as most people seem to agree and talked about being closeted. Anon said she spent most of her time hanging out with the nerdy guy crowd and shied away from girls. As a middle schooler she had hung around girls all the time and was friends with them; but as her feelings towards them began to change she felt she couldn't spend time around them any longer. When asked what may have been holding her back she said she wasn't really sure. At the age of about 20 she was finally able to come out to her family and in many ways to herself with her first girlfriend.

What was it like coming out to your family?
She explained that for her dad it was particularly hard as he is set in his own ways and follows religion to some degree. However her mother and sister were quite understanding and actually already seemed to have guessed. Most people don't know about her sexual orientation; at her place of work she is not vocal about her personal life and feels it isn't something people should necessarily ask. We joked about how people never ask others if they are straight and concluded that it should be much the same for her.

What do you want to see within the LGBTQ community?
Less about awareness, more about meeting people; I would go to more things  like that.