Phoebe

Phoebe, 26 years old, identifies as a woman, and lesbian. At the time was not in a relationship.

This is taken from my balcony. It’s supposed to be of a load of greenery outside but it’s quite dark, so you can’t really see it. And there are bars in the way, so I can’t really get to it anyway. It’s difficult for me to cross the barrier to hold hands with people. The light represents holding hands but that’s on the other side of the barrier as well. I just always feel nervous holding hands with people because of what other people might think, people looking over and stuff like that. Makes me feel uncomfortable. I was walking with my girlfriend one time and a couple of people yelled ‘dykes’ at us. I was embarrassed about that. So, I wanted to stop holding hands, and then I felt bad because my partner wanted to keep holding hands. I hold hands occasionally, like if I’m drunk or something. But not that often.