"For me, I knew I was a lesbian. I didn't know the term, but I knew when I was five or six, so, pretty early on, I was like, 'I have to hide who I am.'"
"But it was interesting that I didn't feel comfortable expressing who I was to my family, ... because of the societal pressures of just the heteronormative narrative, I [just] didn't."
"I didn't know any queer gay out people. I didn't know the term gay, but I was like, 'ohh, I like girls' and people don't like girls. That was the narrative I had in my brain."
"There weren't a lot of people who looked like me. Maybe one."
Hayley Kiyoko realized she was a lesbian around five or six years old but felt societal pressure to hide her identity until her 20s. Despite growing up in an artistic family, she struggled to express her true self due to the dominant heteronormative narrative. The lack of visible LGBTQ+ role models contributed to her feelings of isolation. Kiyoko, who identifies as half Asian, also noted the scarcity of representation for people who looked like her. She has since become a prominent queer pop artist, celebrated for her music and representation.
Read at PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news
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