People have a hard time understanding, I think, that other people often experience things very differently than they do. As a gay man, I have never experienced the slightest twinge of sexual attraction towards a woman. For a while in my youth, I presumed that some sort of Platonic ideal of "gay man" existed and said ideal looked and felt more or less like me.

Of course, that's not true. Attraction exists on a spectrum, as does gender performance and all sorts of other traits we often tie up and define with identity labels.

I didn't set out to presume most other queer people were mostly like me. I didn't decide to think like that. I just sort of did, because human nature is what it is.

However, experience eventually taught me differently. I met enough diverse queer people and heard enough diverse queer stories to start seeing a more rich and layered queer existence.

Your telling your story is important. Your experiences matter, and helping other people understand them matters.

So, thanks. :-)