Maria MatuteShortly after high school graduation in 2016, Maria Matute attended Pride Fest in Manhattan. Feeling excited and empowered, Maria was ready to come out as bisexual. She asked her friend to take a picture of her walking out of an empty closet with a rainbow flag. Maria posted the photo on Instagram, with emojis and the caption: #pridemonth (support your fellow gays). She wondered if friends would see the post as her way of coming out. “Some people got it; some people didn’t,” she recalls.

Photo Credit: Anthony Daley