Looking for community

Hi Vivafrida
Thanks for sharing your story.

It sounds like you’ve been through a lot trying to work out who you are and I can imagine that you must have had a lot of tough conversations with yourself and your partner to get where you are now. I feel for you!

I remember how nervous I was when I first explained my sexuality to someone else and how worried I was that they would judge me. It’s something most of us go through when we start inviting people into our LGBTQ+ worlds and it definitely gets easier with practice.

I want to reassure you that even at the moment, there are lots of ways to make contact with other LGBTQ+ people. Like any social situation, it might take a bit of trial and error to find a space that works for you.

If you’re still feeling lonely and fearful then you might want to talk to someone at the LGBT Switchboard. Sometimes it’s helpful to have a friendly person to run things past. You can contact them on 0300 300 0630 from 10am to 10pm. Their website is switchboard.lgbt/

If you want to find a group somewhere near you then you can try looking at the Stonewall ‘what’s in my area’ page. The link for this is www.stonewall.org.uk/help-advice/whats-my-area . They also have good information guides about being LGBTQ+.

There’s a group called Kenric Lesbians who are running lots of online events at the moment. You can find them here kenriclesbians.org.uk/

www.meetup.com and Eventbrite.co.uk are also good places to find out about LGBTQ+ events happening online.

I hope the next part of your LGBTQ+ journey goes smoothly and that you manage to connect with others with similar experiences to you.

Let us know how you get on with things.

Kuljit