Growing up, I was 100% sure that everyone (mostly girls, I didn't give guys much thought) was gay, or bisexual at least. I didn't really get the concept of gay, but more like I was sure that everyone else felt the same way as me. That that was why girls had super close relationships with hugging and cuddling and holding hands, and why we often complimented each other on our looks. I thought you got a boyfriend because that was what you were supposed to do, but that your relationships with your female friends remained the most important thing. In short, I didn't discover that I was gay, I discovered that everyone else wasn't. Did anyone else think this?
No, but I thought there were definitely more people than the 10% myth and the 1.5%/1.7% reality. Even now, I quite often see m/m and f/f relationships either in real life or TV which make it look like more. For me liking women was always a normal thing, it was men that actually felt weird at first. Whenever I saw two women hugging in my year I knew only liked men, I kept thinking "Why the hell are you hugging, you aren't gay." Obviously I know now that's just what women do as friends, but I couldn't understand it in lower teen years.
Yes, when I was a little kid I thought that everyone was bisexual. Even worse, I thought gender was a completelly social construct (which somewhat makes trans people invalid), so I couldn't understand why people made such a big deal of same sex relationships or transgender/gender non-conforming people.
I used to think that we were all pretending boys were great and attractive... I didn't realize that straight girls actually liked boys, actively, until much later.
I did think everyone is bi/pan when I was young . So I didn't feel strange when I first fell for a girl which was my bestie. Until she told me straight in the face that she thinks I have some kinda of mental illness . That when I realized not everyone is attracted to people regardless of their genders . It feels so natural to me that I didn't even have the " wtf is wrong with me" thought crossed my mind.
When I was young I didn't know that same sex relationships were an option. I didn't know what gay was or that the huge crush I had n a girl in an older class was wrong. I distinctly remember a conversation with a girl in my class trying to see if she had any of the same feelings for a girl in an older class. Maybe instinctively I knew it was unusual? I was eight at the time. I didn't figure out it was a crush until I was 16. We had moved country when I was 9 so I never saw the girl but I can still remember her.
When I was a kid, and probably up until I was partway through high school, I didn't perceive sexuality in others or in myself. I knew that there were different types of couples & relationships, and I knew about sexuality, but I never perceived others based on sexuality. I was aware of various sexual orientations that existed l when I was a teen, and I knew that there were plenty of people of varying sexual orientations in the world, but for whatever reason I was never able to connect anyone to sex or sexuality. I guess I perceived everyone and myself as asexual? (Although I am not asexual)
I thought everyone was robots growing up, and they were going to turn on my eventually. I had ways of defending myself, mostly rocks attached to string that i could swing a people. I had them all in my basement with food and water....waiting for that day...... OH! back to the subject, No.
Let's just say I was quite unaware of anything. I didn't have crushes on anyone and later on only realized a psuedo-sexuality in myself which was not gender specific. As a child I only had a vague sense of thinking that gay people were pretty cool, though I'd never admit so in a homophobic household. But I didn't think everyone was gay/bi. I was definitely indoctrinated with the idea that everyone could only be straight (despite reality).
Not really. I wasn't really even really familiar with the concept of sexuality until I was 11, but at the time I probably just assumed that there were just as many gay/bi people as there were straight people.
Hmmmmmm at six years old it was explained to me that my assumption that I could marry whomever I chose to marry was wrong and boys grew up to become men, not women and they married actual women not boys who thought they were girls with additional accessories. It was pretty upsetting when I was also informed that no matter how much I wanted it I would never be able to become pregnant or be a Mom.
When I was young I tried to give a Valentine's card to a boy who was a friend of mine at a school Valentine's event. The teachers were quick to stop that and tell me it wasn't appropriate; they made me give it to a girl instead. I didn't have any conception of gay or straight then, but that experience made me realize that my feelings were deemed wrong by everyone else.