Lucia's Story

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Before the pandemic and entering my first romantic relationship with a woman, I considered myself more bisexual, although now feel that I was ignoring certain intuitions that indicated otherwise. I noticed a severe difference in my interest for the thoughts and feelings of women than men. Men bored me, where as the company of women and my now partner, Joanna, was thrilling. Movie-like. It wasn’t until mid-pandemic when the dots connected and I no longer aligned with ‘bisexual’, and adopted the term queer. Looking back I think it was awfully brave of me to enter into my first relationship at 21 with a woman, move out, be financially independent and come out to my friends and family in the span of a year or two. I have no regrets and feel more myself than ever!

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Joanna's Story

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Before the pandemic, I was in a job where I was almost solely responsible for staffing an aged care facility. I got calls at all hours and was always on the job. So, when the pandemic hit, the merging of home life and work life wasn’t too much of a shock. I turned to focus on my hobbies such as gaming and table top board gaming as a way to retain my sense of connection and community, as well as embracing the escapism these hobbies afford. This was also a shared interest of myself and my girlfriend, Lucia, with whom I met and lived with at the height of COVID. When lockdown ended, Lucia and I were keen to go straight back into public life as a couple and introduce one another to our respective social circles. We felt that the vaccination would protect us like every other vaccine has, and didn’t want to waste any more time inside. I now continue working with a healthy work life balance.