Video Transcription

How Grace came out to her dad

I did watch close to a hundred coming-out videos, and that really helped. I realised that I’m really close to my dad. We live really far away from each other, and we only get to talk on the phone maybe once a week for an hour. I didn’t want us to develop our relationship on a shallow level like that, and I just wanted to break the ice.

So yeah, I told him that I was bisexual. He just thought I was confused, going through a phase, and trying to be different. I was upset about that. I had a long think about it, and I came to the conclusion that he is a 52-year-old man who grew up in Kenya, which is a predominantly Christian country with a really strict family. I thought, okay, that was his lifestyle. Anything to do with homosexuality is taboo, yet he still expressed the fact that he loves me.

I shared my sexuality with all of my friends, and they were really accepting and loving. It made me realise that there are other people in the world, besides my family, who are willing to accept me as just Grace.

Now that I’ve had those difficult conversations and come out to people, everything is okay—not as bad as I thought.

My advice to anyone in this situation is: be okay with yourself before you tell anyone. Be somewhat alright with who you are. Don’t go looking for approval in other people because you might not get it. What’s important is that you accept yourself first because you’re the one who has to live with you.

Video by Reach Out