Lez Keep It Real

This week’s Come Out & Play post spotlights Courtney, an 18-year-old student at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Courtney e-mailed me her story through OurChart, a lesbian social-networking site spun from the L Word.

This is Courtney’s story:

I knew I was gay all throughout high school. Coming out, on the other hand, I had decided to push off until college… that was until I couldn’t take pretending to be straight anymore.

One of my best friends was the resident lesbian in our medium-sized
conservative high school. I’ll call her “Jordan.” She was beautiful,
smart, and always knew what she wanted. Yet, at the beginning of my junior year Jordan was the last of my friends that I came out to. It was Monday morning late November. I pulled her away from our loud, and quite large, group of friends. I came out, and she was surprisingly shocked. She thought she had the best gaydar possible, but missed me by a mile. Later that day she asked me to dinner. “No pressure,” she said. “I just want to talk.” That night I told her I didn’t want to date anyone in high school. She seemed oddly disappointed, but I ignored her behavior.

Wednesday came with the movie theater premier of RENT! Of course being the drama nerds of our high school, most of our group of friends attended. Unknowingly to me, Jordan made sure that we were sitting next to each other and our sexual tension began.

The next day was Thanksgiving. At the time, I worked at the movie theater and had to work that night. Jordan came in crying with her best friend because of something her mother did or said. When she came up to the counter to buy Harry Potter tickets, I asked “do you want a hug?” Now, Jordan was never one that needed comfort. Anyone else, I knew she’d automatically say “No, I’m fine.” But on that strange night she allowed me to hug her. I joined Jordan and her best friend later that night. We hung out at Hy-Vee until the wee hours of the morning. We talked, laughed, and discussed the beautiful celebrities we had lesbian crushes on. When I got
home, I found Jordan was already online. We started talking, one thing led to another, and she told me she liked me. I sort of figured, but was still completely shocked that this confident, insanely sexy, intelligent girl wanted me. We planned to meet Saturday morning at Panera Bread.

We both later confessed to almost ditching the other at Panera that morning. As fate would have it, we didn’t. Instead we spent our discussion whether to date or not on a small couch in the corner. With Jordan scooting towards me every chance she could, I almost leaped off the couch in sexual frustration. We didn’t get anywhere in our discussion, so I went home while she headed to work.

The next day, Sunday, we met up and went to Barnes and Noble to hang out before going to our friend Kaylene’s house. We sat in the Children’s Department contemplating our dating situation. Obviously, we both think way more than needed. But when the store was closing and our time running short, I got up to face Jordan. She stood on the kids’ bench above me while she asked “do you want to?” I took her hand, helped her down, and said “yes.”

In six short days I went from barely coming out to being in my first lesbian relationship. My parents later found out of my orientation through the grapevine and didn’t take it well. Jordan and I dated for almost a year, ending our relationship in her first college semester while I was still stuck in high school. Eight months after our breakup, we don’t talk much but are fairly friendly when we run into each other. I am comfortable with my sexuality and have dated other girls since.

Tune in every Friday for the Come Out & Play series, featuring coming out stories of celebrities, every day people, personal reflections, advice, tid bits and everything else concerning the complicated world of coming out!

Got an interesting coming out story to tell? Contact me and I will feature it in an upcoming post of Come Out & Play.

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