Michelle is a queer woman who didn’t come out until later in life. She is neurodivergent, and grew up in a time and in a home where neurodiversity was dismissed as poor behavior, and punished as such. It has taken most of her life to get a diagnosis of Autism Spectum Disorder and ADHD, and to begin to understand and accept who she is as a queer person as well. After years of struggle and broken relationships, Michelle now lives happily in a platonic queer relationship with her husband and female partner, with their three cats and two dogs.

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“I knew I couldn’t go back or stay for more of the same mistreatment but I didn’t know how to go forward. I thought I could deal with it all on my own and I didn’t think anyone else could understand without
judging me and blaming me. That’s what abuse does to a person. I left my house in anger, after repeated shouting matches and him throwing and breaking things that mattered to me. I knew I wasn’t going to sleep there, but I drove around for a long time trying to find a place I felt safe. I drove around, and towards the last place that felt like “home” and settled in the Oakridge Coop parking lot under a bright light, nestled among some Peterbuilt cabover 18-wheeler trucks with their heads down sleeping. I knew that if anyone tried to break in to my car they would be seen and I could honk to get the attention of the truck drivers. That was as safe and self-sufficient as I had felt in a long time. Finally nobody had an all access pass to me.
I gradually became estranged from my parents and brother when I came out as queer in October 2021."