I grew up around older adults for most of my life, in a very “patriotic” community. In fact, my mom used to be centrist and my dad, right-of-center.

I was a cisgender heterosexual girl. Before I myself came out as pan, I really had the mindset of “LGBTQ+ people don’t deserve representation”. The thing is, I didn’t really care what people did, but I didn’t think it had to be announced everywhere. I didn’t think representation was necessary, and I was kind of ignorant to the injustice LGBTQ+ people face. I thought “Oh, they already have rights, gay marriage has already been legalized, why do they care so much?”

I doubted climate change.

Keep in mind that my grandparents are part-Italian. My grandpa was half-Italian and came from Northern Italy, so I thought just because my grandpa came here legally, all immigrants could afford to do that.

Well, after a while, I started to become friends with other queer and trans people, and it opened my eyes to a new way of thinking. I no longer supported Trump. I started respecting other people more and later found my identity along the way as a genderfluid, left-leaning transmasc person.

I changed quite early in life, thankfully. I changed at age 13, which is better than being like 73, but at least it’s a change either way.

I thought being patriotic didn’t mean to make America actually better for people, but to just defend everything it did and everything Trump did. I even wore MAGA merch, and I realize how stupid that was now, LMAO.