Believe That What You're Feeling Is Real: Sammi Taylor

“I feel so much more peace now about my future than I ever thought it would be possible to feel.”

Sammi Taylor first realized she was different at 14, but at 20, while a student at Brigham Young University, she says, “I had the first experience where I recognized that what I was feeling about a girl wasn’t just admiration or intimidation, but attraction; and it wasn’t just the physical part of the attraction, it was emotional and intellectual and even spiritual, and it terrified me.”

She got angry at herself after that realization, and thought that she was gay because of something she had done wrong. After graduation, she came out without really meaning to to her mom.

"As scary as it was, I started to have a little bit of hope. When my dad said to me, ‘I just want you to be happy, no matter what that looks like.’ That was the first time I thought, ‘Maybe my future’s going to be okay.’”

"I thought I was doing something wrong, and really it was something I never had control over in the first place.“

Sammi started going to USGA @ BYU (Understanding Sexuality, Gender, and Allyship) a few years after she first heard about the club in a BYU sociology class. There she found a community of friends she could learn from and relate to, as well as opportunities to give back to the community.

Sammi’s advice to anyone walking a similar path?

“Trust yourself. And validate your own feelings because you are the one who is primarily responsible for making sure that you’re happy. And you can do that.”

"You can trust yourself. You can believe that what you’re feeling is real.”

Sammi Taylor was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio by a super awesome, active LDS family. She graduated from BYU in 2014 and, even though she swore she’d never return, she came back for grad school the next year. She’s currently working on a Master’s degree at BYU in hopes of becoming a speech pathologist. Being an openly gay BYU student hasn’t always been easy, but she wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. Sammi loves laughing with family and friends, ice cream, breakfast food, name-that-tune competitions, and convincing people that women’s sports are exciting.