Simple enough, right?

Owen McClintic, 31, Kentucky by way of Indiana

I don’t get “clocked” as queer too often and I used to struggle with that.

Am I queer enough? Do I suppress my queerness because of internalized homophobia?

I don’t like makeup, I don’t like leather, I don’t have a diva, Im not into pups, I don’t like using the word ‘Fag’ colloquially, so do I even have a right to the word Queer?

I do. Queer is all of those things and none of those things. I am queer just by existing and that is enough for me today.

As a kid I knew I liked girls but I also knew I liked boys. So, just because I liked boys that meant I was gay.

Then I heard someone use the word bisexual in seventh grade. And it really was an “ah hah” moment. It meant that how I feel had a name and if it had a name, other people must feel this way. I am not alone.

Then as I grew and explored my sexuality, Bisexual wasn’t broad enough. My attraction was more than the gender binaries.

Pansexual, or Omnisexual seemed to be too haughty of terms for my physical attraction to physical beings.

So today, I just identify as queer. And i am queer enough because I identify as queer.