Sexuality Archives - MyUmbrella

Growing up LGBTQ+ in a Small Town

By : Bobbie Padgett May 11, 2021 Comments Off

When people think of small towns, I think a lot of the time they imagine some cute little place with a welcoming community where everyone gets along and loves each other. And while that’s not completely untrue it’s also not completely true either. As someone who has lived in a small town - that is technically labeled a village - for their whole eighteen years of living, I can say that small town aren’t always what they’re sometimes romanticized to be. When I was growing up, I thought it was exciting to live in my small town. I was fooled by the rumors of small towns being cute and loving, but I soon realized that if you weren’t a certain way, you didn’t belong in this small town. In my

The Lake: A Sestina

By : Lorenzo Mendez December 27, 2020 Comments Off

Amid evergreen song, Mother Earth’s voice blares enough to conceal that of the boy—events that had long defined his hide from his obscurities. Was it the painted nails on masculine digits, the slight strut in his stride, or the two personalities he wore that made faces turn to an uneven arc? The same ones that upturn upon that bible verse: leviticus, sinful, a single color. Of course, the lake he stares into is stripped of its hues. Its once glinting color now stands dull with the rest of the onlookers: black and white, not enough. And though the refracted image of the boy, in hindsight, is him, neither the arc around his belt, nor his murky skin could hide his real image. An image that strings together two narratives into

Francine’s “Partner” Experience

By : Francine Canelo September 9, 2020 Comments Off

As of my senior year, I’ve been with my current partner, so almost four years. I call him my partner because I’m bisexual, and one of my preferences regarding pronouns is using terms such as “partner” instead of boyfriend, or fiancé, or husband. If I were dating a woman, she would be my partner, too. For me, this is deeper than inclusion: it’s a safety net. To understand why this is important to me, I have to recollect on my experiences in high school and middle school. I never came out, I had always had relationships with both women and men, and everyone who knew me knew that gender was not one of my preferences. It was a strange, unceremonial event: one day I started dating my best friend, and

The Evolution of Homosexuality in India

By : AroonaBanerjie June 3, 2020 Comments Off

Homosexuality in India has been a subject of heavy discussion, ever since the beginning of time. Ancient Hindu texts have taken various other positions regarding homosexual characters and themes. According to the normal Indian text Kamasutra, written by Vātsyāyana, an entire chapter is dedicated to erotic homosexual behavior. Homophobia is prevalent in India. Open discussion of homosexuality in India has been inhibited by the actual fact that sexuality in any form isn't discussed openly. There aren't any official demographics for the LGBT population in India, but the government submitted figures to the Supreme Court in 2012, according to which, there are about 2.5 million gay people recorded in India, amounting to 13% of the population. These figures only reflect those individuals who have self-declared to the Ministry of Health. There

Finding Your Labels

By : Katy Doherty May 31, 2020 Comments Off

When I was in elementary school, there was an afternoon where my older sister approached me and said, “Do you know what a lesbian is?” I said that I didn’t know, and she told me that it’s a “girl who likes other girls.” I felt like my world had shifted. The fact that I could put a word to what I felt made my heart race. In my excitement, I later told my mom about this new piece of knowledge. She asked where I had heard it from, and I told her that my sister told me. I didn’t know it then, but a few years later I realized that my sister had gotten in trouble for introducing “lesbian” to my vocabulary. It’s already difficult to grow up non-cishet and

You Can’t Sit with Us

By : Angie Williams May 19, 2020 Comments Off

Not checking a box left me on my own gay island In seventh grade, I learned a new word: Bisexual. “What’s that mean?” I asked. “It’s when you like both boys and girls,” one of my friends said. There wasn’t just one, but two girls in my grade who were bisexual. I never felt like the other girls I hung out with and maybe that was why. Amber was more tomboyish and Shoshana was more girly, but I never felt like either one of them exactly, so I wasn’t sure if I was actually bisexual but I kept it in my back pocket just in case. Okay, so bisexual means I can like boys and girls. But do I like any girls or do I just think they’re really pretty?

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