Emily

I grew up in Center Grove, Indiana after I was adopted from Romania at 10 months old. My adoptive parents and I have always had a close-knit relationship because I am their only child since they were not able to have kids. I grew up Catholic, however that never really affected who I was. When I told my parents I was a lesbian, they were both very accepting. My mom said, "marry a nice woman and I will be happy." They have always been accepting of me and supported who I am. My grandma was the hardest person to come out to, and when I did she actually decided to tell the rest of my family. I was startled by that and was worried about how they would react. Thankfully they were all very accepting.

My sexuality is a large part of my life and it gave me a lot of self-confidence when I became sure of my sexuality. I am much more confident now compared to when I was in high school questioning who I was. A friend of mine actually suggested that I watch a movie called "Blue is the Warmest Color." I actually watched it while I was dating a guy and after watching it I thought to myself, "I am kind of into this a little bit." It was a really cool story about two girls falling in love. I researched more into it and watched more LGBT movies and became more confident in my sexuality. My confidence is firm in my sexuality, but I still question my gender. Furthering my education, I have now learned things like genderfluid or non-binary and now I am trying to figure out if I fit into that spectrum. I don’t think labels are a huge deal. But, I do think gender is something I question at times.

Here at University of Indianapolis in downtown Indy, where currently reside, I feel very accepted. I love going downtown at night and just taking pictures and listening to music. I also love to write music which influenced my decision as a Music Education major at U of I. The music department is a huge family within itself and has been such an accepting place for me. In college I have felt completely free to do whatever, so my freshman year of college I cut my hair, got more tattoos, and started dressing more masculine.

I feel to an extent Indiana is an inclusive environment, but it depends on who you come into contact with. My biggest fear of being here is just that the whole queer community in general is not able to do the same things that heterosexuals are able to. Before marriage laws passed in Indiana, I always questioned if I could have a family. However, once it passed, I became sure that I want kids since I am free to marry. Despite recent progress in Indiana, I would love to live in California. I want to live there not just because of the great weather, but because they have a wide spectrum of people who are so diverse. The only thing I wish I could change about my time here in Indiana is that I could have found my sexuality sooner. The period of questioning was probably the most difficult time I have experienced thus far.