PROJECT: SAM I AM, the lbgtq voice speaks up

Savannah, 16, England.

My story is nothing special -I will openly admit that to anyone who asks. I would introduce myself better, perhaps opening with ‘Hi, I’m Savannah, I’m sixteen and I just like people.’ I’m not eloquent, nor am I confident, but I see myself in Sam.

I have yet to tell anyone about my sexuality -mainly because I’m not even entirely sure of myself yet. Someone very close to me once told me that pansexuality was just ‘cop-out’ bisexuality. It made me question everything about myself; if trying to come out at all would be worth it, worth everything I could lose. Because of this, I have never had the confidence to truly admit to anyone I know that I might be bisexual, but most probably pansexual. I have seen what happened to my best friend, who came out to the rest of my grade and was mocked behind her back for the rest of the school year, and I’m scared it might happen to me.

Brittany, the only real representation of anything close to pansexuality, is so fluid and settled with her sexuality that I can find no solace and similarity in her at all, as much as I adore her. She is nothing like me.

However, I have always related to Sam more than any other character in Glee, because of the way his friends mock him for things and the problems he seems to have accepting himself. I would much rather curl up with a Harry Potter film with someone I love than go out like the rest of my friends. I dye my hair to escape who I really am. When he was first introduced, I had hope. This hope disappeared over the course of season two, when Sam became straighter and straighter.

If Glee broke the ‘bisexual’ stereotype, people might not see at as such a shock that people like me (and people like my best friend) can like girls, boys and everything in between.

It seems a lot to rest on one character, but if Sam were to come out as pansexual, or even bisexual or gay, I might be able to find confidence in myself, and be proud of my sexuality and who I am.

I’m Savannah, but I’m also Sam. I am the 57%.