For LGBT canons!
There’s something so heart wrenching yet special about only discovering your queer identity in your 30s. It feels like lost time and missed experiences, but it also feels like relief and true self love and understanding.
Thank you to my first boyfriend, Tommy, for helping me understand that and taking the time to let me grow and figure things out without judgement. I know it’s hard to be so many of someone’s “firsts.”
Early on, I was SO nervous and SO afraid of my friends finding out. I always had an exterior sort of persona and this went against everything that persona was to me. My sister Maddie was the first person I properly told, and then my best friend Eddie. They were both so accepting and I couldn’t wish for anything more than that. And later when the elder lesbian of the friend group, Hen, found out, she made sure that I knew she had my back no matter what. Tommy and I even did a few double dates with Hen and her wife, which was wonderful.
My parents were a lot less understanding about having a bisexual son, but it is what it is. We were never close. Maddie’s acceptance meant more to me than any rejection they could throw at me.
Maybe I’m just simmering in my feelings, thinking about this tonight, but it truly changed me as a person and I’d never take it back for a second.
- Evan Buckley (9-1-1)
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