At what age did you first realise you were gay or bi?

[Insertnamehere]

Old thread by this point but who cares.

Found your personal stories interesting. Seems everyone is wildly different.

My story is quite boring tho. I just liked a guy in my class when I was 11. Most people were starting to, you know, like other people and my first was a guy and has been guys ever since. He was a nice dude that transferred that year if I remember correctly (he and his twin sister, she was also very nice, as far as I can remember).

I was never confused or in denial. I knew the name for it, along with other less nice names for it. But I was dead certain I wasn't EVER going to let people know (growing up in LatAm in the 90s my loves. Fun times. Oh how things have changed for the better in good ol Chile in 25-ish years). I was letting people know I liked this or that girl every now and then, because of course I did. I laughed along with the boys to all the "that is gay" "this is gay" bullshit.

I remember mother asking me once and once only if I liked someone. Sorry mom, I had to lie (Yes, guys, 34 year old me is under no delusion that I was able to keep that lie up. Mother is no fool)

Thankfully(?) I passed off as...normal(?) in that regard, so aside from one guy in high school who looked me straight in the eye and said, oh I think you're gay, I wasn't really questioned all that much. Which came in handy because particularly in high school my socially awkward shy quiet personality wasn't really appreciated and I got picked on a lot.

Wasn't really until I was a few years into my work life I started to just let go. There where few instances where I was announcing anything and more just getting on with guys mostly when I was out partying (something I also picked up when I was working. Man, work life messes you up eh?) and then the people around just...knew then and there.

Dumbass. Should have done it in uni. Uni was THE best place for that.