“So, what’s it like growing up as a lesbian in Italy?” That’s quite the common question I get asked whenever I meet some new friend from another country.
I’ve grown used to answering with a generic statement, like it’s no different than France or Spain, but I never really thought about the motive behind until someone pointed it out to me a while ago.
The implicit question was “What’s it like growing up as a lesbian in a country with Vatican City so close, where religion is so strong?” The short answer is, I don’t know.I never really thought about it this way, even though it definitely shaped my coming out.
But if I squeeze my brain trying to come up with a more elaborated answer, I find myself thinking that because the way discrimination is so rooted in the common culture, I didn’t even perceive it as such until later in life, when I was already struggling to cope with the fact that I am a lesbian.You know Italy, right?