Writing an accurate homosexual "realization".

Morning all, my project is doing okay currently, but I'm starting to plan the later stages.

Now for some background: My protagonist is a 16 year old girl fighting in an Amazon Brigade, she's also an (eventual) lesbian raised in a fairly conservative family, while not a homophobe herself she doesn't immediately consider the fact that she's gay. Comedic density aside she will obviously have to catch on eventually and I would imagine such a realization in the 40's would be...stressful and with my being a straight male and a stickler for realism I am admittedly a bit out of my depth.

Now as I historically learn best by personal anecdote, I invite my fellow tropers to share their stories, not so much as "coming out of the closet" as "waking up in the closet". The more descriptive the better I can understand. (PM's are also fine, my interest in this is purely academic.)

Seeing as she's going to be Camp Straight (character first after all) I could theoretically do it myself but I really want to nail the personal touch and get in her head for this.

(Also sorry if this sounded a bit mechanical, it's my first topic introduction on the forums and I'm a bit nervous.)

edited 2nd Oct '14 3:30:54 AM by Slysheen

Not gay, but I have a lot of gay friends.

Usually for a non-Armored Closet Gay, there's a lot of little signs that could take a while for them to put together. Being gay doesn't mean you're automatically repulsed by the opposite sex—you can have very deep relationships with the opposite sex and often have sex with no problem, it's just that you wouldn't be physically attracted to them and you most likely wouldn't seek out sex.

It's very possible that she could mistake her lack of physical attraction to any boyfriends/dates as "I'm not attracted to them because they're not quite the right person," or simply "I'm fine but I have a pretty low sex drive" as opposed to "I'm not attracted to men because I'm gay."

edited 2nd Oct '14 11:45:38 AM by Sharysa

I've got two gay friends who did the "get married and have kids" thing - in the case of one of them, married for a large number of years - because it was the "normal"/expected/traditional thing to do in their families, and it took both of them years to realise they were attracted to other women.