Accepting that I am bisexual has been one of the most liberating experiences of my life and telling those closest to me has been my way of fighting prejudice.
By: Laurie Coutu-Racette

My name is Laurie, I'm 24 years old and I grew up in a small town called Saint-Donat, in the province of Quebec, Canada. When I was 17, I moved to Montreal to study, and I discovered my passion for travelling, so I also started to travel around the world.

I spent much of my life thinking and saying I was heterosexual. I grew up in a place where there were no gender identities and sexual orientations other than cisgender and heterosexual. It was the norm, my only model. My parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, cousins, cousins, my friends' parents were all cisgender and heterosexual. I started dating boys very young. By the time I was 13, I had my first serious boyfriend, and I had several since then. I had never questioned my sexual orientation, let alone my gender identity. I had always had fantasies about women, but they had never materialised and I never paid attention to them until recently.

Two years ago, I started to pay more attention to these fantasies that were perhaps not so banal and to question my sexual orientation. Giving myself this space and the right to question my heterosexuality, I began to feel sexual attraction to women. So for the first time in my life I discussed these fantasies, attractions and questions with my ex-boyfriend. This experience was very liberating. A few months later I started to talk about it with my friends; I was also, although for a very short time, with some girls and, little by little, this part of me that before seemed strange and mysterious became something normal, something that is part of me, that I feel comfortable with. I started to identify as bisexual. Although I haven't talked about it with my family, mainly because until today I have only had men as partners, today I can say that all my friends and my partner know that I am bisexual. I travelled to several countries where I made good friends, whom I also told about my sexual orientation. The truth is that my experience, in my country, and in other countries like Colombia, was very good. I think everyone I told that I was bisexual reacted positively; some were surprised, but all of them accepted me as I am.

The fact that I am bisexual has changed absolutely nothing in my relationships with others, with my partner, with my close or distant friends, colleagues at school or at work. The love these people have for me and for myself as a bisexual woman is the best weapon against hatred and discrimination. I know that there are still many prejudices about love or sex between two women (or also between two men, with trans or queer people, etc.), but I am lucky to be surrounded by people who are open and with whom I feel very comfortable. To these people who still have these prejudices, I would say that there is nothing more normal and beautiful than love and sex between two human beings who are attracted to each other, no matter their sex or gender identity. Let us be cisgender, transgender, lesbian, gay, straight, bisexual, queer, etc. Whatever we are, want and do, as long as there is consent, is valid.