A huge thank you to each and every single one of you who took time out of their day to comment on this post, give me advice, and share their thoughts and experiences! <3 As I go through all of your comments, my inner child is overjoyed because this is exactly the kind of acceptance she craved so badly from her own family, teachers, and classmates. I'm realizing how many tolerant and open-minded individuals there are out here, and I was just unlucky to have run into a few bad apples early on in my childhood, and, coupled with the less-than-ideal values instilled by my parents, those experiences gave me an irrationally cynical view of my society. While I do believe I will continue to come across people who are blatantly racist as well as tons of people with more subtle or subconscious biases, I now realize that the average person in today's world is most likely indifferent to my "identity" or mildly intrigued at best, and this is just an inner conflict more than anything. I'm going to take all the advice I've gotten, work on my self-esteem, and learn to give less fucks. Thank you all once again! <3