The funny thing about coming out at the beginning of a pandemic is that you and everyone you love are in quarantine. When I came out as bisexual, it was April 2020, and by June that year, Pride month wasn’t exactly a time for celebration. Despite the lack of hugs or pats on the back, I was missing more than physical affection and affirmation for my new identity. I wanted to invite people into my life, specifically into my home. ,After almost 25 years of staying confined within gender roles and heteronormative expectations, I looked for COVID-safe ways to explore myself on the internet. Around this time, everyone and their mother were starting hobbies or sourdough starters. The home improvement industry experienced a boom of interest from people who thought it was the perfect time to paint their bedroom a new color or tackle that DIY kitchen renovation. ,Taking advantage of the drop in rental prices in New York City, my partner and I started a lease on a larger space down the street from the studio. The night before we moved in, I stayed up late to paint the living room wall Backdrop’s Surf Camp, a dark blue with green undertones. This color felt liberating. I didn’t feel pressured to stick to a brighter, traditionally labeled as “feminine” color. ,That paint’s now the foundation of a gallery wall of collected art that hints at my interests and personality: an anonymous oil painting of two nude women laying on a rug together, a vinyl of Patti Smith’s album “Horses” (who is queer in spirit, if not in sexual orientation), and the colorful prints of JP Brammer, one of my favorite queer artists.,Of course, the pièce de résistance (shown just above) is not on the gallery wall but hung solo between the two windows that face the street: a large (22-inch by 28-inch), limited edition print of a sapphic embrace by Girl Knew York. The cherry red frame emphasizes the leaves sketched around the couple, creating an illusion of flames licking at bare skin within the piece. When you walk into our home, it’s hard not to make direct eye contact with the woman staring protectively over her lover’s shoulder. The piece is unmistakably queer. While it isn’t the first piece of art that depicts nude women lounging with each other, this print hangs center stage in a space that I share with a cishet man.,My relationships will always be queer because I am queer, but the reality is my partner is a straight cishet man. Instead of relegating this art to a corner though, he has always expressed his love for my queerness. To have a representation of something you found shameful your whole life — and for someone to look directly at it and consider it art — is an experience I wish I could share with my younger self.