“What if we ask ourselves about ourselves, and we don’t like the answer?”

Can someone help me understand what is meant with this question?

I take that quoted question to be a very primitive definition of self-reflection on the part of the author.

From the article:

“I’m cisgender. Everybody always assumed I was a man, and I actually am a man. And until my daughter came out, I never really had to think about my gender identity or even about anyone else’s. It was like transparent to me. I never consciously checked in with myself. People just assumed something, and it happened that they were right, so it just sort of ‘was'”.

He accepted that he was supposed to be heterosexual because someone told him he should be and he never examined his own feelings on that statement. I'm glad that he eventually got there, but I have no idea how someone can arrive not only at adulthood but even past that into parenthood without self-reflection. What other things in his life has he been believing simply because someone told him to believe it instead of him examining the evidence, thinking critically, and arriving at his own opinion?

It doesn't have to be something as life changing as sexual preference to "asking [yourself] about [yourself], and not liking the answer". Back in my young adulthood used to be someone that paid debts back late. I looked at myself reflectively and didn't like realization of the negative impacts it was having on those I owed and also myself. So I made changes in my behavior and fixed that problem so it didn't happen anymore. Doesn't everyone do this kind of self examination and self improvement on a regular basis?