I don't know when I realised that I was gay. When I was a kid I had a lot of friends among boys, but I didn't feel attracted to them. Time passed by, and all my friends started dating someone, but I still didn't like anyone in that way. At the age of 16-17 I started thinking that something was wrong with me. One of my closest friends showed me some movies about gay relationships and I really liked them. She also started flirting with me and tried to persuade me to do the first steps, but I wasn't ready. Anyway now she has a boyfriend, but I'm really grateful to her because she helped me to understand who I am. Anyway 3 years later, one girl wrote me a message, we got acquainted and started communicating. We communicated every day for hours and I didn't even realise when I would fall in love with her. A few months after, we started dating. It was extremely hard for us, because we couldn't do anything in public and had to behave like friends all the time. And of course we kept out relationships secret from everyone. However, after some time her mother somehow found out that we were together and she became really mad with my girlfriend.  So she took her mobile phone, tablet, computer away from her and we couldn't communicate for some time and couldn't meet each other as well. Now everything is fine, because she persuaded them that she doesn’t have feelings for me and we don't communicate anymore, but we still must be very careful. I really want to continue our relationship and maybe even marry her one day. So that the reason why I become so inspired when I come to London and see all that gay flags, expressions of liberty and equality on each step. I was really happy, because here I could be myself. I want to come out one day but I don't know when I will be brave enough to do that.

Thank you to Sofia for being so brave and for sharing your story with us <3