Well, the biggest thing about coming out, Gary, is that it's still a stigmatized minority in the world. If asinine bastards are allowed to call themselves patriotic because they were the American flag on their beer bellies, why shouldn't the LGBTQQIA community be allowed to announce/celebrate their sexuality? Sex is universal, whereas a star-spangled cloth is merely a localized thing.

Anyway, it's not about announcing your sexuality to the world so much as recognizing it yourself, and declaring that you're comfortable with it as part of your personal identity. In a nutshell, anyway.

I came out at the end of my freshman year in high school. I was watching Desperate Housewives one Sunday night, and feeling supremely down in the dumps... And anyway, so I wrote my mom a long letter about it. :rofl: She was supremely accepting, thankfully. I love her everyday for it!