I'm From Driftwood
The stories on I’m From Driftwood send a simple but powerful message to LGBTQIA+ people everywhere: You are not alone. I’m From Driftwood combats isolation and creates empathy to build a more understanding and accepting world. These are our stories, told in our own voices.
Latest Coming Out Stories
How A Gay Man’s School Project Helped Mend Relationship With Parents. “They Respected Me. That’s All I Cared About.”
My name is Angel Olvera and I’m from Los Angeles, California. I’m from a very conservative desert part of Los Angeles, about an hour north of downtown. So I grew up in the dese...
“Maybe I Am A Tatted-Up, Crazy Witch Lesbian Slut And Maybe I Just Need To Go Be That Person.”
My name is Autumn and I’m from Brooklyn, New York. I grew up in a small cabin, Swiss Family Robinson-style treehouse type situation that my dad built in the middle of a state for...
Finding Love While Living Through The AIDS Epidemic.
Coming Out To Parents in the 1970s Wasn’t Easy But “Time Heals All.” Every every gay man knows at some point in their childhood, certainly by puberty, that – what their at...
Falling In Love, Breaking Up, And Reuniting: “Every Day Was The Best, Best, Best, Best Day Ever.”
1950s: Experience During Naptime: “It Was An Inkling Of A Difference.” So being a native New Yorker, I started my early childhood education on the Lower East Side. I was four ...
How A Lesbian’s Religious Mother Went From Disowning Her To Fully Embracing Her.
My name is a Estefanie Lliguichuzca. I’m from Astoria, Queens. It’s Christmas break 2008. I’m coming home back from college and I invite a friend who I had a lot of feelings ...
After Disappointing Coming Out Experience, Queer Person Seeks Family Of Choice.
Hi. My name is Jessica and I’m from Boston, Massachusetts. I grew up in a large Vietnamese-American family – of immigrants, actually. And growing up, we were the only one that ...
Gay Pop Star On Coming Out: “I Couldn’t Have Become A Real Artist Until I Learned To Accept Myself.”
My name is Ari Gold and I am from the Bronx. When I was a child, I was obsessed with Annie. I had an Annie doll. I must’ve somehow convinced my parents to get me an Annie doll. B...
How A Lesbian Pushed Her Mom Beyond Tolerance To Become An Advocate.
Hi. I’m Jourdan Porter. I am from Davidson, North Carolina. In tenth grade, I was living right outside Jackson, Mississippi. And it was pretty early in the school year and I had ...
“Sometimes I’m A Woman, Sometimes A Man. Most Of The Time I’m Neither. Sometimes I’m Both At The Same Time.”
My name is Erin Busbee. I’m from Cleveland, Ohio. When I was 6 years old, I was at a playground or a park. And I’m playing with the kid there and their parent comes over and in...
Gay Man Comes Out To Friends, Then Family, Then 250 Co-Workers At The Same Time.
Hi. I’m Luis Carlo Parga and I’m from Montreéal, Québec. My grandmother and grandfather moved in from Italy, as did most of my friends, but I was half-Mexican as well. I reme...
How A Christina Aguilera Song Impacted A Gay Teen’s Life.
Hi. My name’s Courtney Walton. I’m from Newark, Delaware. I was a sophomore in high school – this is 2002 – and my family and I were driving back from my cousin’s basketb...
Election Results Prompt Queer Woman To Stop Living Fake Life. “Maybe I Could Have Changed Someone’s Vote.”
I’m Chris Landtroop and I’m from Irving, Texas. When I was 18, I was in undergraduate school at Texas Tech in west Texas. There were lots of tumbleweeds and cowboys and not gay...
