Allison Bechdel's story of her coming out as a lesbian while uncovering the mystery of her father's secret gay life is one that's very confusing and takes quite a bit of thinking to understand. Throughout my reading Fun Home,  I realized the similarities between her father and Bechdel herself.
To me, it seems the two are trying to break away from what they could consider to be "social norms." I feel the two characters search for acceptance in a way. On page 98, Bechdel writes, "Not only were we inverts. We were inversions of one another." Looking back and analyzing this quote carefully, I realize that Bechdel is comparing herself to her father to convey the similarities between them. I think by "invert" Bechdel means that the two can successfully mask who they really are, Bechdel being a lesbian and her father, Bruce, being a secret gay man. The two, despite their true sexual orientation, are attempting to be socially accepted in what is normal of society today.
Beneath this statement, there is a large picture of the two dressing to get ready for a wedding. Bechdel is a young girl. The quote explains the picture. Bechdel states," While I was trying to compensate for something unmanly in him, he was attempting to express something feminine through me. This statement speaks for itself. In a twisted sense, the two are trying to show their real selves for another. It would not be socially accepted for Bechdel's father to dress feminine and express an openly gay life. Instead, he expresses his true feminine thoughts and what he really wants for himself through his daughter, a reason he is so hard on her and presses her to dress like a girl because that was what he may have wanted for himself at his daughter's age.
Bechdel, on the other hand, always had a masculine side to her, something commonly seen in lesbians. There was always something feminine about her father, as the quote and stories of his male experiences goes. Bechdel on the other hand, loved masculinity, and it was not accepted for a young girl not to dress like one in society. The two were going against how they truly felt, yet were compensating for one another, essentially working together in one mix.
 An easier way to put the situation is a quote on page 99. Bechdel writes, " But I wanted the muscles and tweed like my father wanted the velvet and pearls-subjectively, for myself." It seems the two led different paths, different orientations, and secret lives within themselves. But the one factor they had in common was in a sense, living through each other. Bechdel and her masculine side, yet having to accept femininity, and her father and his feminine side, yet his outward sense of masculinity was portrayed in his daughter's secret side. The two collide beautifully in a twisted sense as well as coming together by the end of the book.