I cut contact with my mum before I could come out

Many queer people will tell you that coming out to parents can be a terrifying, albeit an important, rite of passage.

But with my mum, I missed coming out.

It was a complication of timings – when I was ready to be open at 19, it had been over a year since we’d last had contact.

As of September, it will be a decade since I last saw my mum. It was through my own volition that I decided to end the relationship, after years of feeling…