Bernenda Marc

My parents meant so much to me.

They're like my best friends and my sister.

So the last thing I wanted was

to hurt them in a way, even though that wasn't the right way.

Now thinking back about it and thinking about it now, I wish I would have came out earlier.

But due to the dangers, due to making sure that my parents still love me, still were happy and proud of me, I kept it in for a very long time.

We can go down a deep road.

I first realized that I was attracted to women back in elementary school.

Saw women as beautiful.

But it was a different feeling than when I would see a guy.

But then I was like, maybe I'm just fond by them.

Maybe I just want to be friends with them.

So it was like, you know, a little cute like...

crushes every now and then to other people in my class.

And then sadly, like more and more stories started coming out about, you know, the LGBTQ plus community in Haiti.

And my parents basically saying that, you know, if you're part of this community, you're probably going to go to hell, sadly.

But I knew since I was in elementary school, but I shoved that down very quickly, very soon.

So when I was seven, seven years old, I was...

unfortunately sexually assaulted by my cousin who is a woman so for a very long time I was very confused about that and a part of me thought that my parents knew what was going on because I'm a kid yeah

You know, you're dropping me off after school, so I'm thinking this is normal.