How did you know?

when i was in first grade my first kiss was a girl... but i denied it for years. i started to realize when i would constantly tell myself "if i was a boy i'd date her/them" and when i would fantasize me living a life out with a woman. 

I figured out somewhere 2-3 years ago, when I constantly did not understand the problem with dating the same gender, and the more I thought about it the more I realized I am attracted to any gender, it's more of going for the personality, so yeah, I pretty much figured out I'm Pansexual 

It took me 20 years before I realized exactly what I am. And that’s okay. Not everyone is lucky to figure themselves out at a young age. I also grew up in a time where it wasn’t really acceptable to be open. 

At the end of 2nd grade (catholic prep school) my mom told me I was going to have to start wearing an extra piece of clothing. She showed me a "training" bra & the first thing I said was, "Well Brian doesn't have to wear one! Chris doesn't have to wear one! Why do I??? :((( " and my mom looked at me with this upset look on her face and said "Those are all boys. You're a girl" and that was the day I learned that being a girl had to do with body parts no one could even see and was not about having long hair ("Girls have long hair! Boys have short hair!"). I think my little mind shattered a bit that day. Gender really became performative for me after that and I hated performative gender as well because I had zero Positive Reinforcement for performing the way I was expected to. I remember throwing my first school skirt in the trash the day before first day of 3rd grade because it took me 15 minutes to figure out how to button all the buttons on the stupid skirt and then when I showed my parents and no one cared and I hated that I went through so much to do the "girl thing" I was supposed to do and no one could even verbally praise me for it.

i developed a crush on my best friend when i was about 7/8 and ran out to the car crying because i thought there was something wrong with me. both of my parents are excepting and my dad says he has known since i was about 3/4.

I had a crush on so many different people and genders all in a month and i realized i didnt have a preference and gender didnt matter. Yeah so im pansexual.

I was a late bloomer. At the age of 8 I knew something was "wrong" with me. I didn't like girl-themed anything, barely got into girl encouraged subjects, absolutely hated my body when I started to develop and had little to no interest in boys or girls as I got to my teens and started to explore my sexuality. Occasionally I caught interest with a boy or a girl but by the time I was hitting my late teens, I had "settled" on the idea that I might be bisexual. That stuck with me until I was about 30-39 years old. I started to confront the mentality, the issues with maintaining stable relationships with monogamous bonds, and started to open up to the idea that maybe what was wrong was my upbringing encouraging me to stay with one specific partner. I'm going on 42 in May next year, and I've been in an open poly relationship with my husband for the last 3 years. I am not only happier mentally and emotionally feel supported, heard and valid in my feelings, but I love all my partners so very very much, and they all know it. I don't have to hide it anymore, I was so afraid of being judged by my blood relations and it wasn't until I cut ties with them that I found true freedom in being myself, being authentic, and not having to mask myself anymore in the closet.

short and simple 

Man, that episode of the fairly odd parents where timmy is doing a bike race and they make him a bike thats like, half man, half bike. That bike was the first sign, big ass chin had me looking like dayumm danny phantom did it too. 

Nonbinary person here, love telling this story because I think it’s somewhat silly!

Mostly just seeing cute guys and thinking, tbh.

I just felt like I wasn't just attracted only to guys sometime around 13 to 14 y/o so I went as unlabled for a while because I wasn't sure who exactly I liked and because none of the labels I knew fit me. When I read about omnisexuality for the first I immediately knew that was 100% me. Also when I was little I used to watch my brother play super smash bros and had a crush on one of the characters when I wasn't even sure about their gender but didn't even care.

I was about 8 i was in second grade i had a huge crush on this girl we were friends but not like best friends. I know that i couldn't like girls but so since i knew that it wasn't allowed i didn't really didn't think about it or talk about it until i was 12 then when i turned 13 i came out as bi but later i realized i was really a lesbian.

well in 5th grade i had my first crush on a girl and started out as bi and just grown from there and now im pansexual and non-binary

I kinda figured it out when I was 3. My grandparents had this neighbor who was very pretty, and I would always hide from her whenever she would come to visit or bring my grandmother groceries. I called her my “girlfriend” for the longest time because I was really young at the time and thought ‘girlfriend’ meant a “friend that was a girl”. I realized 4 years ago that the neighbor girl was the first crush I ever had. I started to develop feelings for guys, and I’ve been in relationships with a few non-binary people. I questioned my labels for the longest time, especially with my gender identity. I felt a connection with femininity , but I didn’t feel like I fully embraced the idea of being a full-on cis female, so I just recently ( until 4 months ago ), started labeling myself as a demigirl. 

I literally always liked girls (this is back when I was a girl, I'm trans btw). So like, I used to have crushes on the women in the magizines. I didn't know what being gay meant at the time, but I knew I liked women.

when i discovered pron, i found the homo version. and thats ig what sparked it sadly.

I didnt I just went around kissing everybody in kindergarten no matter there gender without a second thought and just went with it no regrets.

I was like 10 and I realised I had a crush on my (girl) friend but like also I liked a guy and I put 2 and 2 together, but I'm pan and not bi, or something else because I found It didn't matter the gender or sex of the person I liked, I just liked them. 

Me, year 7 (or 6, cant remember) Date a boy, break up, question my sexuality because I wasn't upset from the break up at all, I mean I am gay but I just didn't like the guy lol

mine was such a long process, knew I liked girls from about 13 but I just ignored it until was 18 and kept thinking about it. thought I was bi from that point, got into a relationship with a guy for over a year, realised I was a lesbian bc something was missing, ended the relationship and ended up in another relationship with a guy again, a year later, bc I got confused, just to realise once again that I was definitely gay and couldn't avoid it no more.

when i was like 5 or something i asked my friend (if the same gender) is to marry me and got really upset when he rejected me.

i got butterflies after holding hands with one of my friends 

I was introduced to pornography at a young age and always found myself doing inappropriate things with my girl best friends. I have always been attracted to both genders but only recently (about a year) identified with being pansexual, I use to call myself bisexual but I felt disassociated with the term. 

asked my brother should I take a sexuality quiz. "straight people don't take those." he says. 

i was in like the 6th grade and i thought marshall-lee from adventure time was hot.

i went to a girls only church camp when i was nine years old- that’s about it lmaooo

i was in year 3, i was really into cuphead atm (it just came out and i was OBSESSED). there was this character, her name is Cala Maria she’s basically big octopus for that turns into medusa. she was my favourite (and still is). one day i was scrolling through safari of pictures of her and then it hit me. i was thinking “oh my god, i think she’s attractive!” and at the time i thought the only lgbtq identities were gay and lesbian and it wasn’t until year 6 when that wasn’t the case! i was told about what a bisexual was. and the more i heard the more relatable it was to me. then year 7 came around when i finally started accepting myself and finding 2 new labels to call myself

when i was 11 i kissed a guy a year when i was 10 i kissed a girl

so yeah thats how i found out i was bisexual when i was 13

I grew up in a very religious house hold so about in 8th grade I have never heard of lgbtq and didn’t know anything about really. I went to a catholic school so I couldn’t express myself either, some people would say some stuff about gay and lesbians but it was always negative. I moved schools and then that’s when everything really changed. I was introduced with transgender friends and gay people and it was definitely an experience. After awhile having a bunch of lgbtq friends I started questioning my gender and sexuality. I never liked my name or being viewed or called a female and i just started realizing it. So when 8th grade started I went by Jasper and he/him pronouns. Now only my friends knew and that was the people who were supportive but I kept it really low because everything was still new and I was still being taught that it was bad etc. When my parents found out it was something else, my dad (adopted) was very supportive because he is bi and is in a poly relationship so it was really nice being supported and taught more things. My mom and grandparents and other family however didn’t take it amazingly. But after that all happened I started getting more close with my gender and name I picked out, it. Helped that other people called me Jasper and used he/him.

That’s how it all really happened and it’s still a shit show but now I know that I’m not a girl so that’s nice at least. I’m still in the air about being non binary but idk if I’m ready to tell my parents. At least everyone besides my dad. 

I figured out i liked girls maybe like a year or two ago, I was sitting on bed thinking yk what *insert name here* is really really pretty I'd date her if I was a boy- and then i started fantasizing kissing that person and stuff and I was like Hmmm maybe im gay idk. ANYWHO i figured out I was trans when I was just thinking If i was born a boy I wouldnt change a thing so yeah- now I have a boyfriend and ive been with them for three months already im really happy I found someone like them 

i saw Jake from Jake and the Neverland pirates and 5 year old me fell inlove

When i was in elemtary school i wanted to be more like the boys. I knew i liked girls and had an attraction to them but i thought it was what evreyone else felt too. I didn't learn until i was in my early teens that not evreyone was attracted to females loll. For a bit i explored being trans but then realized that i didn't have to be a man to like girls. So here i am now 20. genderfluid and omnisexual. 

I knew i wasnt cis at a young age never felt like i fit in then in 2020 i felt comfy being a boy and realised ive felt like a boy for aslong as i remember then the homosexuality kinda followed just noticed i never have found a girl attractive in a romantic way where as guys omg they are so hot lol

I never understood why I couldn’t date anyone regardless of their gender. I just realised I was bisexual when I started crushing on a girl. I had a crush on a boy before so it all made sense to me.

I just kinda new when I was a kid I kissed more girls then guys but I also new I didn't just like girls and that I was interested in boys and girls

I grew up not knowing there was such thing as gay or straight I just thought is u liked someone then that was that. So when I was in middle and jr high I would just date boys and girls and not thing anything of it.

I didnt realize til 7th grade when one of my friends came out that in fact not everyone is bi. So from there I was like oh okay I'm bi, then changed to pansexual once I did more research. Then in highschool I had some friend who were trans and I did my reserch (ofc) and found out about being non binary, and thus I was like oh. Well. I've never really wanted/felt like a girl and never wanted to be a boy, thus bam, my currently self was born

puberty (・_・ヾ

For me i've known ever since i found out about lgbtq+ back in 7th grade before then i just thought i was straight 

i made out with my best friend

I was attracted to my friend and told her (this was in fifth grade i think) and then we dated until 6th, and then we broke up (   :(     ). but yeah, i've always liked girls in some small way. i am now bi and non binary

There were many signs although I didn't realize it until recently.

The first was when I started to feel jealous of my best friend's boyfriends.

The second was when I started to develop feelings for a girl on the internet.

The third was when I had a dream...where I fantasized about someone of the same sex.

Honestly I’m not really sure when I learned about lgbtq. I always knew I liked all genders seeing from a young age I was kissing both boys and girls. But I didn’t even learn about LGBTQ until seventh grade and it just came naturally from there. LGBTQ was never mentioned because maybe if it wasn’t mentioned I wouldn’t become queer or smth. I don’t remember if I was surprised or anything it just all came naturally to me. 

Doesn’t mean I accepted it was a very difficult sexual and romantic orientation journey not even to talk about gender smh. 

Had a crush on my best friend in 4th grade LOL!

for my sexuality, it was when i first met other lgbt people that i realised i could like girls too and i Had had girl crushes in the past but couldn't realise it! which was a good thing because i first came out to a really accepting environment like that! for my gender identity, i just researched a little during quarantine! still not too sure about it... but at least more aware!

⛅𓇼 🌊⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ 🐚

So my first experience was when I was like 9ish where I played Mario Galaxy and saw Rosalina for the first time and was smithened, but thought i shipped her with Mario at the time, because I didn't know what being gay was and didn't articulate my feelings then.

THEN I DISCOVERED STEVEN UNIVERSE WHEN I WAS 15 AND HAD THE BIGGEST GAYCRUSH ON ROSE QUARTZ. Thus begun the gay spiral. I then discovered I was bisexual. 

Maybe it's just my type being ethereal space queen... (◍•ᴗ•◍)

well, my first kiss was a girl... and at 11yo i had the biggets crush on my best friend at school,and i wasnt atracted to boy, everyone told my "at your age is normal that girls start to fall in love with boy" but i didnt like ANY boy. At that time i didnt think "well, now i gay", it took my a wile to realice that, but i always knew i like girls and boy and nonbinary, i had a crisis at 13 because i didnt know if i was bisexual or lesbian, but i identify as a bisexual now

I should have realized it when I was like three and saw Crystal Gayle singing on the TV.  I grew my hair out cause I wanted to be like her.  However, I didn't until I was about 16 and two of my friends were walking through the hallway at school with me talking about a girl who had just come out.  They said they wouldn't be able to have a relationship with a girl and I realized I could.  I immediately went to the bathroom and had a panic attack.  I was in a heterosexual relationship at the time and I loved my boyfriend so I was very confused.  

Idk, its weird. I kind of just didn't care. I thought that people could just date whoever they wanted and never really gave attention to it. I mean when i was 9 and still convinced i was fully a girl i dated another girl online. I just didnt care. When i was 10-11 i realized that that wasnt 'normal' and i was probably gay or bi. I think i was 10 when i downloaded an app called Episode. Story game kind of thing and you could date in it. And i dated both girls and boys. Then when i was older i looked back on it and kind of just realized. Ive been bi for a while now. Im not even closeted. I just dont tell people cause theres no reason for me to.