Language of Invitation

Last night, at my school's LGBTQ club meeting, we discussed another way to think of and talk about the coming out process, called the language of invitation. My school's LGBTQ club are trying to get away from the coming out of the closet metaphor because it is inherently negative. The closet represents this really dark, isolated place, and it can be scary to leave because you are thrust into unknown territory. Instead they proposed that we think of it as inviting a person into your truth. We were told to imagine that we are in our room and that whenever we tell them we are gay, we are inviting them into our space. It kind of puts the ball more in our court.

I didn't really explain that well at all, and I'm really tired, so I'm going to stop. Hopefully I made some sense. I just thought it was an interesting discussion, so I thought I'd share and see what you thought.

Anyway, what do you think of this new metaphor? Do you think it's a more positive way to think about it, or do you not care?

 

But they don't have to accept the invitation. You can invite people, but that doesn't mean they will show up, or they might show up late, or you may find out that they were already waiting at the door hoping to get an invitation.

That was the problem I had with the analogy because when I first heard it, that's how I felt about it, because I was pretty unhappy about my situation. I guess the invitation metaphor really works better if you have accepted yourself more.

 

What I mean is, you tell them you are gay, but they may not accept it.