Growing up I realised early on I was drawn to both men and women. At 13 I came out as bisexual to close friends and family, this is where I realised how difficult being a bisexual woman could be. I have had several challenges during my life including being locked out of the girls locker room at school, family members being unaccepting of my sexuality and bullying. This became very difficult to deal with and I would often avoid the conversation of my sexuality in order to avoid any attention, this led to me feeling like I was “broken” or wrong”.
After joining an LGBT group at college I started to gain more confidence in myself and started to speak out about my sexuality challenging assumptions and stereotypes people had of the bisexual community. I felt as if I had been given a voice and had people backing me up when discrimination arose.
Over the years I have learnt discrimination and prejudice against the LGBT community will always be an issue, even on my wedding day when I married my husband I was asked if this meant I was not “flippant” or “greedy” anymore. Little did they know, he also identifies as bisexual!
Since coming to work for Touchstone I have found that I have been accepted without question and given the tools and support to be able to shout about and challenge these issues.
Danielle Northcliffe
