Maya is a member of the Firefly team who identifies as bisexual and gender non-binary and has experienced mental illnesses. They share their experiences in this interview.
Interviewer: How and when did you realize you were non-binary?
Maya: A month ago, I was thinking about it for a while...I realized that I kind of just saw myself as a person and not as a female.
Interviewer: How and when did you realize you were bisexual?
Maya: In 7th grade, I had a crush on a teammate of mine and I didn’t quite understand why I was reacting the way I was when she was texting me and stuff like that, and I realized oh, I like her!
Interviewer: What was your experience coming out like? (Coming out means sharing your identity with other people).
Maya: I didn’t have any bad experiences, thankfully. It’s still scary because you don’t know how ppl will react because queer issues aren’t talked about regularly. I came out to half my friends through jokes, or I just pretended they already knew [that I was bisexual or non-binary] and talked about it with them. I wasn’t very direct about it. I don’t come out to ppl who I know will react negatively
Interviewer: Are there any misconceptions about being bisexual or nonbinary that you have witnessed or experienced firsthand?
Maya: people think that bisexuality isn’t real. I’ve heard people who think about bisexuals as people who are doing it for attention. The majority of people don’t come out for attention, because it’s so scary to come out.
Interviewer: Do you have any advice for kids who are questioning their sexuality or gender identity, or who haven’t come out yet?
Maya: My advice is to trust your intuition and not to be pressured to come out when you’re not ready. Take your time because there’s no rush. Don’t be afraid to seek out other queer people for advice, help, or just to talk to, because just talking to another queer person can be so helpful.
Interviewer: How and did you start going to therapy? Did you realize you were struggling mentally or did a friend/parent?
Maya: I had some family issues and they were really getting me down. I went to a social worker in school to talk and they told me to go to a therapist. That experience wasn’t very well organized so I didn’t start going until a couple of months later. I started going to therapy sophomore year because I realized that enough was enough with my issues and I needed help. I had to advocate for myself to go because my parents weren’t very adamant about me going to therapy.
Interviewer: Did your parents ever have issues with you going to therapy?
Maya: They never were against it but I do know that they hold some stigmas against it. My mom wanted me to go to therapy to fix one area of my life, but I wanted to go because of my general mental illness. When she realized that the thing [she wanted me to go to therapy for] wasn’t solved, she thought my therapist was corrupting me, but that wasn’t true.
Interviewer: Since you go to therapy and are medicated for depression, have you witnessed the stigma behind going to therapy and taking medication firsthand?
Maya: I honestly think everyone should go to therapy. A lot of my friends who I recommended going to therapy to when they were struggling were like, “therapy is for weak people”. Some people joke about it and are very against it even though therapy is actually very helpful.
Interviewer: Besides therapy, how do you deal with mental health issues and struggles? What are your support systems?
Maya: I have a few friends I go to when I need to talk. I've kinda come to this point where I can hold in a lot of things until therapy. My support systems are my friends and my therapist
Interviewer: What are your hobbies?
Maya: I like photography, I do it for the yearbook and I love doing dance photography and portraits. I like filmmaking...I like making videos and editing and all that. I also like to dance, that's something I do a lot. On occasion, I play the ukulele.
Interviewer: Amazing! Thanks so much for speaking to us!