These LGBTI students talk about their first queer kiss | Photo: GLAAD
Most young people have their first kiss at 15 years old, but queer people who on average are two years away from working out their identity – they have to wait even longer.
According to LGBTI advocacy group GLAAD, 17 is the average age at which young people say they figured out they are LGBTI.
So how does this affect the important rite of passage – that is your first kiss?
Three GLAAD campus ambassadors were asked to share their ‘first queer make out’ story.
Describing them as both ‘hilarious’ and ‘liberating’ these LGBTI college students reveal what the milestone means to their identity:
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When did you have your first gay kiss?
The video looks at how though young people often get their first kiss early on, it’s their first queer kiss that actually feels like it counts.
Rosemary Mulvey of New York’s Ithaca College’s first smooch happened at a party:
‘It was a pretty big wake-up call for me. Because I realized that I really wasn’t happy in a relationship with a man.
‘There was more to my identity than being bisexual or straight. I was actually a queer woman.’
University of Washington’s Andre Menchavez has a similar experience:
‘Being gay, for me, was always something that was seen as a question or a phase, but that first kiss was a solidifying moment that I was gay. It made me comfortable with that label.”
GLAAD says your first queer kiss is like a door opening to a whole new world. In a blog post they write:
‘Exploring your identity with the support of people around you. It can serve as an introduction to an identity and shared community. But, it often serves as validation of your sexual and romantic orientation.’
