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Hi my name is Melissa, I am 15 years old and I am very attracted to girls and my identity is whatever.

I have been raised LDS all of my life (that is the mormon church) so coming to terms with my sexuality was really difficult. I told my mom I was gay when I was 10 years old in the drive-thru for TacoBell, she said that she loved me then said that it was just Satan tempting me. I was too afraid to come out to my father because he is very homophobic and is abusive. Although I have not had the best experience coming out, I will say that for some people you don't have to them, for example... when I was 13 I met a girl I liked who also liked me, well a week later we were in the locker room showers and after that I could not say I was a virgin to my Bishop at church, but whatever.Elementary school was hard because when I cut my hair "boy short" people would tease me and call me a boy, write dyke on my name tag, and throw rocks with the word faggot written on them. One day I walked up to my friend and some other girls to walk home with them when they stopped in front of me, turned around dumped soda pop on my shoes then said, "We don't walk with faggots". So I walked home alone in tears but as I looked up the street there was a boy my age who just stared at me, I felt embarrassed so I turned the corner and took a longer route The next day I felt awful, I wanted to die at only age 10. At recess I sat alone far away from the building against a chain fence, as I sat there in spite of myself the same boy who had stared at the horrid situation the day before sat next to me in silence, it seemed a little odd to me but I realised he had sat there alone almost every day, then a moment I would never forget happened: The boy turned to me and said it is ok to be gay.5 years later we are great friends who talk often about our life and he talks quite a bit about his boyfriend.