21 Twitter confessions about being gay in high school that are way too relatable – Queerty
Many of us acknowledged our queerness in our teen years. Whether we expressed it was another story! As covered in depth at LGBTQ Nation, it can take years for queer youth to feel comfortable opening that closet door, and the heteronormative high school experience certainly doesn’t help.
“[American society] still broadly pretends that people are straight until, at some point after age 18, they proclaim themselves otherwise,” Charles Dunst wrote for The Atlantic in 2019. “Parents and schools have long recognized the need to accommodate nascent heterosexuality in wholesome ways—for instance, by organizing school dances and providing basic education about how the reproductive system works.”
But queerness, Dunst argued, “is widely understood to be inherently and only sexual; by this logic, all things LGBTQ should be relegated to adult spaces.”
Related: Gay teens confess their biggest struggles in high school
Some of the Twitter users quoted below went to great lengths to pass for straight in high school. Some don’t know how they didn’t know at the time that they were gay. And some — including celebrities Connor Franta and Bianca Del Rio — don’t know how others didn’t know. Read on for the confessions…
i literally had a period in high school when i would half-jokingly call everyone dear, sweetie, honey, sis, and would talk about “spilling the tea” non-stop
and people were surprised when i later told them i’m gay??????????/
— Ternasyl (@TernasylLuter) October 11, 2022
Somehow didn’t realize I was gay in high school even though I would go on American Apparel’s website just to look at boobs
— larnnit (@larnnit) October 5, 2022
thinking about how all it took was a girl to sit on my lap once in high school for me to realize i was gay
— rae (@devilsbae69) October 11, 2022
I never had to come out to family as a gay man. Being the lead in three high school musicals was enough to send the message. #NationalComingOutDay
— Drop The T ???? (@thisaintnew) October 11, 2022
I came out 18 years ago as a sophomore in high school. A friend had just told me (via AIM) that he was gay.
I responded that I’d never actually felt attracted to girls; until that moment it hadn’t really occurred to me that I could actually be gay.
— gary the spooky corgi fairy (@pnwcorgay) October 11, 2022
in high school I had a best frenemy and when we got really mad we would call each other gay and storm off scream/crying like I HAAAATE YOUUUUU! then we went to college and ended up being each other’s first girlfriends until we were 24 lol
— ely kreimendahl (@ElyKreimendahl) April 7, 2022
i cant believe i went to the midnight premiere of twilight in high school and no one knew i was gay
— Connor Franta (@connorfranta) August 16, 2020
In high school my mom offered to buy me a subscription to a quality gay porn site cuz of how many viruses I harbored to my PC. Happy Mother’s Day ??
— Dylan Adler (@DylanAdler6) May 10, 2020
Related: Tim Federle on revisiting gay high school in ‘High School Musical: The Musical – The Series’
Me: *in high school*
Aunt: “Are you gay”
Me: ?????????? “… no”
— Velvet (@VelvetIsCake) March 6, 2021
i should’ve known i was gay in high school when i forced my straight friends to turn off a football game so we could watch the premiere of britney spears’ music video to womanizer
— Ricky Dillon (@RickyPDillon) October 6, 2020
can’t believe I was forced to argue against gay marriage in a mock debate in high school but I can believe that I won
— JP (@jpbrammer) January 8, 2021
When I was in high school I saved all the money I’d made selling quiche at the Renaissance Festival to buy my parents (and me) tickets to see Sweeney Todd on their anniversary… and somehow they still didn’t know I was gay.
— Bryce Tache (@brycetache) February 7, 2021
thinking about a gay couple i knew in high school who announced their breakup by making both of their Facebook statuses the complete lyrics to “For Good”
— dbs (@dbs_tweets) July 12, 2021