Welcome back to another month of A Beautiful Soul. Like normal, I will be sharing a story from a member of the LGBTQ+ community, although this time I went to one of my HEXian friends and asked them if they'd be interested in sharing theirs. I figured it would be interesting to hear from our fellow HEX members since they're the ones we interact with most on here, after all. There's very little to no editing of this story, since it's not mine. Come join me in reading PrincessCat's story!

I never really came out directly in the way of going to my friends and telling them, "Hey, I'm bi", but I also never had to do that. My coming out came in two stages... well three, if you want to split hairs about it.

First, I came out to two of my friends who are openly bisexual and lesbian, respectively. I did it pretty out of the blue while all three of us were driving somewhere by announcing, "Hey! This is the gayest car out of our friend group, isn't that funny?". I then watched while both of them kind of bluescreened for a second before they realized what I said. Obviously, both of them were very supportive and laughed about my way to come out to them, after they questioned me to make sure that I am, in fact, into girls. They were also the ones who trickled the news into our friend group, so I never had to tell anybody directly because everybody knew.

The second time I came out was in a different friend group. Again, I decided against coming out and saying it (pun intended); instead, I chose to tell them by showing them prospective girls from a dating app that a friend signed me up for, while going, "Look, isn't she cute? My friend found her on a dating app for me!". Luckily, my friends were very supportive once again.

The third and last time I came out was to my family, which was super easy. My grandmother was desperate because I had never dated someone before, and she started suggesting girlfriends and boyfriends to me - before I had even figured out I'm into girls. This was all just to get me to be in a relationship, so I only had to tell her that she was right. My mother's answer was that she always thought that I had too much love in me to be just limited to one gender. My brother's reaction was to high-five me, and now he is teaching me ways to flirt with girls. I'm very blessed to have such a supportive family and amazing friends.

I think this is a really lovely story - and a very positive one, too. It shows that you don't always have to come out in the traditional way, which is something I think we're all hoping the world one day reaches - for no one to have to come out because there's no assumptions or heteronormative standards. Don't forget to check next month for yet another coming out story!

Welcome! Are you ready to once more take an adventure through the acronym? This month, we're looking at the 'A' in LGBTQIAP+. Now, I know what you're thinking. Surely the 'A' stands for Asexual, an important pillar of the community and a valuable umbrella term, right? Well, yes, but did you really think you'd be getting a serious topic from me? Absolutely not!

In today's article, the 'A' stands for 'animals', because we're going to learn about some animals that fit into the LGBTQIAP+ community rather well! After all, instances of sexuality and gender diversity are found throughout the animal kingdom, not just in us hoo-mans. Buckle up your seatbelt and put on a crash helmet because this safari will be a whistle-stop tour!

Our journey begins in New York City at Central Park Zoo. The year was 1998, A Bug's Life was captivating children worldwide, and two penguins were about to make history. Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins, were being closely observed by zoo staff because they had begun to engage in traditional penguin mating rituals together. While it might not have been candlelit dinners or spontaneous trips to Paris, trying to hatch a rock thinking it was an egg was enough to pique the interest of the keepers. Eventually, the birds were given an actual egg to hatch, which they did! The hatchling was named Tango, and the two fathers continued to successfully raise him for a year, until (like my parents) they separated after being forced out of their nest.

While these two penguins were not the first to make headlines for being 'homosexual', they were the most well known. The story of Tango spawned a bestselling children's book and has been the subject of numerous theatrical performances over the years. Many people consider Roy and Silo to be instrumental in aiding understanding of homosexuality in the animal kingdom to the general public. Unfortunately though, it's time to leave the cute pinglings behind and look at gender variance among animals instead. While I don't have any other specific case studies for you, I do have some interesting facts! So let's start by heading to Australia where we're on the hunt for transgender bearded dragons (well, kind of).

Although we're always learning more about every species of animal, a fascinating discovery was made regarding bearded dragons in 2016. Eggs containing a biological male will sometimes alter the course of their development and become female, despite remaining genetically male when exposed to high temperatures during gestation. In the most extreme cases recorded in the study, the creatures resembled the other sex in various ways and were even able to reproduce and lay viable eggs themselves. Research is still being conducted into how and why exactly this happens, but it's nice to know that we're not the only species capable of being intersex.

In the immortal words of Sebastian the crab, we're heading to where it's better (and wetter)... under the sea! It's a commonly known fact that male seahorses are the ones who carry the children, but did you know that clownfish are all born male and can later transition into females? The reason for this is that clownfish fall under a category known professionally as 'sequential hermaphrodites'. Put simply, the females are in charge in their watery world. If she dies, then the most dominant male will transition into a female to take her place.

If you think that's a touch dramatic, you might be interested to know that the slipper limpet sea snail goes one step further. Studies have found that males of this species transition to females when simply touched by another male slipper limpet. With that, we've reached the end of our safari for this month. Thank you for coming along for the ride, and be sure to join me next month where we'll take another letter from the acronym wildly out of context!