My Why Behind the Cape Breton Pride Pins.

I grew up in a time when you'd hear "that's so gay" when kids were making fun of you on the playground. I was bullied relentlessly already and didn't want to add fuel to the fire.

In a small community where we "didn't know any gay or bi people” but I have gay family members and at least 10 people from my grade alone have come out since graduation. That's like 10% of the people I went through school with and we never even spoke about it. Imagine if we felt more comfortable to be ourselves back then?

In a religion that said people like me were broken and needed to be fixed. Little me was afraid of "going to hell" and despite the fierce love that my family has always given me, I thought if I was truly myself I would disappoint everyone who loved me. 

I've been with the same person, a straight man, since we were teenagers. I'm a bisexual woman who passes for straight. I didn't have to come out to love the person I love. I didn't feel brave enough to be a "part of the community" and I felt like a terrible ally.

As happy as I was, I had a lot of shame. I held on to that shame for a long time. It festered. It grew into depression, anxiety, and self-hatred. It could get pretty dark. It wasn't until last year, at 36 years old, that I was finally able to trust in myself enough to get help for my mental health, and share who I really am with family and friends.

I've been on a journey from self-hated, to self-tolerance, to self-acceptance, to self-love and now, self-celebration. And that's what these Cape Breton Pride pins I'm selling represent. They’re a celebration of my journey, many other people's journeys and a home that I really truly love. A way to show support and raise funds to help people living here to love and accept themselves on their own journey. 

And that's why I picked The Cape Breton Youth Project as the recipient for the donation. They're a non-profit organization making Cape Breton healthier, happier and safer for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and their allies. I'll be sharing more on them in another post but for now, you know the story about why I'm doing this and who we're going to help. Thanks for reading this far. Be weird. Be Kind. Be You. 

Visit their website or Facebook page to learn about them.