Dear Mom,

Remember the last argument we had?
When you told me people were either gay or straight?
You asked me what bisexual was.
You got mad when I told you it meant I was attracted to both boys and girls.
So right now, I’m going to tell you what it means:

It means it bothers me when Jordan makes jokes about me being a lesbian
It means I love Jason
It means I like girls who are either kind of girly or really butch
It means I have to hide my anger when Dad makes rude comments about gay people
It means I’ve never asked anyone out
It means you think I’ll sleep with anyone
It means I look through the Victoria’s Secret catalog to look at the girls
It means I like people because they’re beautiful, not because they’re male or female
It means I like guys who are at least a little bit feminine looking
It means I listened to t.A.T.u. up in my room for a half hour before I came out to you
It means I dated Christina
It means I’m part of my school’s GSA
It means I can find beauty in both sexes
It means I usually wait months to tell someone I like them
It means I made out with Tanya at Youth Pride Boston this year
It means I cry myself to sleep at night when we argue about whether or not people can be    bi because I know you don’t accept me for who I am
It means I have friends who don’t judge each other for their sexual orientations
It means I’ve hid from you almost half of the crushes I’ve had
It means I have to wonder if a girl I like would be angry at me if I said anything
It means I’ve gotten picked on because I like girls instead of just boys
It means I feel uncomfortable when asked if there are any boys I like by family members
It means I don’t want to explain pansexual to you because it would probably just make you mad
It means that I’ve kissed a total of four people while some of my classmates have slept with more people than that
It means I haven’t told Dad yet because he’ll assume I’m a slut
It means I love going to pride events
It means I hate it when Jordan makes comments about bisexuals
It means I feel more comfortable when Buzzy’s around because Scott won’t make comments about my friends’ sexualities
It means it hurts my feelings when Dad says things about Jason just because he’s bi
It means I like people who are androgynous

It means that even if you don’t accept me, I’m not going to be any different.
It means I can’t change who I am to make you happy
It means it won’t go away if you ignore it.