29Rooms — Refinery29’s magical art and fashion funhouse – is back for its second year, kicking off during NYFW, from September 9 to 11. We’re bringing our commitment to women claiming their power to life, through the event’s theme, “Powered by People.” To celebrate this sense of possibility, we’ve curated content that embodies our theme and pushes you to do more — start the conversations you want to hear, make change. We built our dream world and want to inspire you to power your own. For more information on the 29Rooms event and our initiative, click here Editor's note: Allison Hope is a freelance writer and LGBTQ advocate. The views expressed here are her own.When I first came out at age 16, I told only select friends that I was a lesbian. It took me a year before I told my parents (actually, they confronted me until I admitted I was dating a woman several years my senior). Once they knew, the first thing my parents said to me was that they were worried about my safety. They were scared I was going to get beat up on the mean streets of New York City for being queer.It was the late '90s, and Ellen DeGeneres was the only celebrity who had come out. Her show was subsequently canceled , which shoved her back into the proverbial closet. Matthew Shepard had been beaten to a pulp and hung out in a cornfield to die in Wyoming. It was no picnic being a sexual minority, even as we approached the millennium in one of the biggest and most liberal cities in the world. But sadly, harassment was something I had already experienced.