My Boy Is: So Bi

As the years passed, Leo stopped explaining. He started wearing his identity like a second skin—not a shield, but a light. He taught me that his bisexuality wasn't about being 50/50; it was about being 100% capable of seeing beauty without the borders of gender.

"They want me to be a finished book," he said, his voice thick. "They want to flip to the last page and see a label. But I’m a series. I’m a whole library. Why is my capacity to love more people seen as a lack of commitment to myself?" My Boy Is So Bi

The first time Leo mentioned it, we were sitting on his fire escape, the city humming like a low-voltage wire beneath our dangling feet. He didn’t make a grand announcement. He just pointed at a vintage poster of David Bowie and said, "I think I’ve finally stopped trying to decide which half of that energy I’m supposed to like more." As the years passed, Leo stopped explaining

I watched him go through the "Bisexual Erasure" gauntlet. I saw him date Maya, and heard the whispers that he’d "picked a side." Then I saw him fall for Julian, and heard the same voices say, "See? We knew he was gay all along." "They want me to be a finished book,"

I looked at him—the boy I’d known since we were both knees and elbows—and realized the tension he’d been carrying for years had finally evaporated.

"Because people are afraid of what they can’t categorize, Leo," I told him. "You’re a glitch in their matrix."

For Leo, being a "bi boy" meant living in a constant state of translation. In some circles, he was "too queer"; in others, he was "passing." He had to navigate the girls who thought he was just a "safe" best friend and the guys who thought he was just a pit stop on the way to coming out as fully gay.