DURHAM, NC — Local woman Natalie Byrnes, 32, who has been married to the same man since she was 22, reportedly reminded friends yet again on Monday that despite appearances, she is in fact queer — a detail she has now shared roughly once per conversation since attending a body-positive craft night six months ago.
“I just think it’s important to be visible,” Natalie said while uploading a third Instagram story featuring a photo of her husband holding her hand, overlaid with the caption “Queer love is real love too.”
Friends say Natalie has recently undergone a political awakening, which began with an astrology-themed podcast and escalated rapidly into a new identity centered around “living authentically” through TikToks, Substack essays, and wearing giant earrings that say ‘fluid.’
“She told me she identifies as ‘emotionally pan and spiritually demisexual,’” said longtime friend Erika Wu. “Then she said it again the next day. And the next. I support her, obviously — I just didn’t realize brunch was going to include a PowerPoint.”
Despite being in a legally monogamous, tax-filing, mortgage-holding relationship with her husband Chad (whose name she pronounces with a long ‘a’ now), Natalie insists she exists in “a liminal queer space that resists binaries,” especially when posting about Target swimsuits.
“People assume I’m straight because I married my high school boyfriend, but that’s such a colonial framework,” she explained. “If anything, our love is queer-coded heterosexuality, which is just as valid as any other form of liberation.”
At press time, Natalie was reminding her group chat — in response to absolutely nothing — that “coming out is a lifelong journey, and yes, I’m still queer. Even while folding his socks.”
