Dear teenage self, I don’t know where to start. You’re hidden behind so many doors I doubt you can even hear me in that closet. You certainly can’t hear yourself. You have those dreams, the ones where you’re kissing Cathy Leong in the dark auditorium. You wake up and hastily forget the dream, and then forget that you forgot anything. You find yourself looking at Cathy’s lips, the expressions on her face, and her curveless tomboy body, and then right away you forget why you were looking, and set yourself to daydreaming about a boy instead. Mother says it’s wrong to hate homosexuals. You should be sorry for them, she says, because they lead such ugly, sad, lonely lives. You won’t go there.

I know it will be hard for you to believe this, but yes, you are a lesbian, and in just a few years you will have blown right through those hundred locked closet doors as if they weren’t there. You won’t be leading an ugly, sad, lonely life. You won’t be ashamed or afraid to be caught kissing a girl, and your friends won’t drop you or betray you for it, because most of them are as gay as you are. You’ll find yourself in a place where there’s a whole drama-laden tribe of happy, feisty young lesbians, and you’ll jump in howling joyfully.

BTW, Cathy Leong isn’t dreaming about you. She’s going to marry her college boyfriend, but later on she’ll break up with him because she’s fallen hopelessly in love with a female co-worker.

Submit your own “Letter To The Closet” here.

Tags: National Coming Out Day