Didn't Have the Language - Phases Archive

Back at school, I was so clueless. I went to an all girls school, and I had no idea... I remember making friends with some of the older girls, but not really knowing any of that [about queerness]. One of them gave me a Robert Palmer LP, and looking back it was probably a flirting thing, but I had no idea. And I had a huge crush on one of my classmates, but again I didn’t know. We didn’t have the language for it, we weren’t talking about it.

When I started volunteering for the Terrence Higgins Trust in 1994, I met another woman there and we were both exploring our sexualities. And we had a snog. It was more of a let’s see what happens things as opposed to us really liking each other. That was really a kind of amazing thing to be able to experience with someone and... Lightning didn’t strike us down. We were okay.