VOX ATL Teen: I Came Out 3 Years Ago, And I Haven’t Stopped Yet

“Queer people deserve to feel normal, too. I deserve to feel normal and to feel happy,” VOX ATL’s Haley Henderson writes. Thursday is National Coming Out Day.

Nelson Antoine / Associated Press

By Haley Henderson

I came out three years ago. I told my mother over dinner that I was bisexual. My heart raced, and I blurted the sentence out before I could talk myself into changing my mind. She didn’t acknowledge it.

I came out again about 18 months ago. I told my mother in an airport that I was a lesbian. My hands were shaking as I realized I was going to have to tell her that there was no chance of me being “normal.”