I'm gay. I never really came out in high school. I wasn't afraid to do it, or anything, I just wasn't sure how. I was the president of my school's GSA my senior year, but was 'femme' enough to pass for straight. I didn't run up and down the hallways shouting 'I AM A HOMOSEXUAL' or anything, but I mentioned it in conversation if I felt that it was appropriate.

So my question is, for you LGBTQQIA persons and straight allies, how did YOU come out, or not, in your school or workplace? Was it easy for you? How was it received? Were you met with any resistance?

I came out in college. I saw it as a fresh start, so I didn't really have to come out there, since everyone was meeting me for the first time, and they knew that I was gay. Plus, when you're the treasurer and later vice president of the gay-straight alliance club and openly dating a girl, people don't really have to ask. xD

I'm really lucky that I have super-liberal hippie parents and a really liberal extended family. My mom was shocked at first, and went to talk to her mom, my grandma about it. She was freaking out a little, but my grandma just turned to her and yelled, "so she's gay! So what!" xD That kind of shocked my mom into being fine with it. She still occasionally asks me if I'm really still gay, but it's less not being okay with it and more hoping for grandchildren and not wanting my life to be harder because of other people's prejudices. When I told my dad, he just said "...So what? What's the big deal? Now, you said that you had something important to tell me?" Which is the best reaction, I think. It shouldn't be a big deal.

Oh, and apparently my dad knew that I was gay before I did. HE COULD HAVE TOLD ME. D:<

I don't see the point in "coming out" personally. If you're gay then good for you. However I don't really see a point in announcing it.
I mean sure if someone of the opposite sex asks you out then it's cool to just say your gay or les or whatever. However I don't think it's the general public's business at all what you prefer and they have no need to know it.

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!

@Facade: OMG YOU'RE ZELDA. <3

Back on topic: I'm not gay, but I am a vocal ally, to the point where some people have confused me for a lesbian. My mom is lesbian, my favorite cousin is a drag queen and three of my best friends are gay or bi. I have a big rainbow sticker on my Vespa that says "celebrate diversity", another that is the Coesxist logo, etc. I've had the bike vandalized a couple of times, probably due to the uptight Bible-thumping Republican community I live in, and I know my boyfriend's mom probably isn't too pleased either as she's a Seventh-Day Adventist, but I really don't care. People who are so concerned with what goes on in another couple's bedroom really need to get a sex life of their own and let everyone be. I actually stopped talking to an ex I was trying to get back together with when he went on a rant about 'stupid fags' after watching an episode of Rescue Me concerning the gay fireman...I can't stand self-rigteous, intolerant bigots and I was glad after that happened that we'd broken up after all.

I was really lucky to grow up surrounded by both GLBT and Allied adults and a community that, as a whole, is pretty accepting. I am currently very out, and not only am I bi, I also consider myself on the gender spectrum as well. For those of you who don't know what means, I'm not completely settled as a female and sometimes feel much more male.

As for my family, I haven't completely come out to my dad's parents. They immigrated from England and are rather serious Catholics and I'm not sure they'd be accepting. My parents and other set of grandparent, who live with me full time, are completely aware and totally supporting. I'm also in administration of my GSA at my high school and am active in GLBT issues and activism around Boston, where I live.

However, I know some of my GAY and Lesbian and Trans friends have suffered from hateful words and actions and I know there's some homophobia at my school. But I'm lucky that I haven't suffered that first hand.

I haven't come out and I'm not going to. I'm bisexual but I won't tell anyone except friends.

I'm straight myself but I have a number of gay/lesbian/bi/tran friends and support them wholeheartedly. However, I have family members that are very anti-anything-that-doesn't-fit-the-status-quo which has caused more than a few fights when they start spouting their bullshit around me. I believe in the saying "live and let live". I don't see why someone else's private life is anyone else's business. If they're not hurting anyone, there shouldn't be a problem.

I'm out in the sense that I'll tell anyone who asks.

I really don't go around saying anything. I don't think it's necessary to broadcast, especially when I'm not getting anywhere anyway, haha. But most people I know just basically treat me like I have no sexuality, and you know what? That's fine with me, doesn't get in the way of anything then.

--But yes, in answer to your question, I never really bothered with any real coming out process. I don't think it's necessary for people to know until it becomes relevant, and it hasn't become anywhere near relevant yet.

I never was "in the closet" so to speak. I always believed that I should like who I like and not worry about what others think. I would say I more discovered my sexuality more after high school since through high school I was pretty much asexual. My first and only job I had so far had mostly gay/lesbians working there so they were always very open.

I am pansexual though so I dunno if that makes all that much of a difference or not.