People that helped you accept yourself as gay without actively doing anything?

My girlfriend before she was my girlfriend. She seemed so okay with being gay and so accepting of herself. Now that I know her better I know that there was a time in her life too where she was afraid to accept herself and a little unsure. But in a strange way that helps me, to know that even the people i consider strong were once as weak as I feel I am at this point in accepting myself. Everyone goes through that process.

 

Yes definitely. More so in movies and tv shows because there aren't many gay couples here, plenty of gay people but no one in committed relationships so it's rare to see gay couples. It's stupid but Santana from Glee has helped me a lot, I know Naya Rivera isn't gay in real life but just seeing her character go through so much has helped me. Really just Glee in general has. Oh and the movie, Imagine Me and You has helped me more than I can describe.

 

At the place I worked from age 16-21, I had a colleague who was very openly gay. I think the way he was accepted by everybody, even those who I believed would be homophobic, really helped me accept who I was.

 

There's no openly (male) gays in my school, just a lot of lesbians, lol.

People like GloZell Green, who campaign for gay rights, I guess.

 

Definitely. Pretty much every gay individual/couple I see on TV makes me feel better about myself...even if it's just a little. Just seeing how all the other characters in a show treat and accept the lgbt characters makes me feel like the lgbt community can be accepted in real life as well. And of course, Ellen! Everyone can find inspiration from her, whether it's in being gay or just being a dang good person

I've known a few people in school who have given me some hope and has helped me feel like I should be more accepting of myself as well. One girl from my college (we lived in the same dorms freshman year and had a couple classes together freshman and sophomore year), she was a totally out and proud lesbian. She wore rainbow belts, rainbow suspenders, rainbow bracelets, used a rainbow mug for her drinks, etc. She always had her girlfriend around and proudly introduced her to everyone on our floor and everyone who they meet as her girlfriend. She was so comfortable with herself; it was inspiring to me, but that wasn't enough to make me brave enough to act like that. I just wish I could.

 

Lady Gaga.

 

I saw a ton of gay and lesbian couples while I was in New York. Seeing these couples eventually gave me enough courage to come out.

 

Tons of people. I remember this guy who used to go to my high school who was the president of the student government, liked by everyone, funny and he was gay. It was as if for the first time it really wasn't that big of a deal at all. He just lived his life and that was that. It was then when I started to realize that maybe it isn't as bad as I was imagining it, which I'm happy to report that it isn't that bad

Also, A LOT of people from EC helped me in more ways than they will ever know. I used to look at pics and profiles go "oh, look at that. Not a weirdo and he is gay. Nice" I know, sounds silly, but it was a huge help haha

 

Well for me it was mainly movies and a few out celebrities I know of. What really made me decide to take the jump to at least come out to my sister and to not deny it when asked was Kurt from Glee. Lol this sounds corny but I just started watching Glee like a month ago and Kurt is one of my favorite characters. It helped me really to stop with the mind games and tell myself "Hey, you like girls. So what?" Basically ever since then I stopped doing the whole denial crap and accepted it. And now i feel better that I did

 

One happy day, a congressman who works in the Whitehouse visited my school in Chicago, where I studied for a while. He told me and the other students about his own coming out story, and how much he was happier after he did it. It was a great speech and I think I would have never come out if if it was not for it. He was not stereotypical at all, and gave me a lot of hope to be myself and at least try to stop being unhappy and lonely when it came to my love life. I came out to a.group of classmates only a week later.

 

Yup, the first girl I fell in love with pretty much helped me accept myself. She still doesn't know how much of an impact she's had on me and sometimes, I wish I could tell her. But it's okay. I'd rather our friendship doesn't suffer any consequences because of my feelings for her in the past. We still talk so that's all good

 

^This. And there are a few LGBT people in my area, but I don't encounter many people everyday anyway, let alone gay people. My neighbor is trans and she's got the guts to be herself everyday no matter what, and she's old enough to be my grandmother, so I'd say she may have influenced me a little bit.

 

My parents. With my mom and dad both being in the theatre, and my step-mom also in the arts, I was exposed to people from all walks of life- especially the LGBT community. Hell, I'm even named after my mother's gay best friend! Same sex relationships were never even really explained to me, because it never crossed my mind as a child that it was anything but normal.

As I began to realize my own sexual attraction to women, knowing that my parents would be incredibly supportive when I chose to come out to them, and seeing so many happy and successful same-sex relationships around me throughout my life made it that much easier to come to terms with it myself. While it was (and still is, to some degree) confusing, I never had any negative feelings towards the impulses I was having, and I definitely owe the majority of that acceptance of myself to them. Every day I think about the fact that I am so incredibly lucky to have the support system that I do, and I thank them often for it.

 

My best friend/now boyfriend and some people on EC.

My best friend because he was always around being all irresistable and stuff, EC because some people made me think about stuff that I really didn't wanna think about at that time.

Without either one I doubt I ever would've known I was not straight.

 

Well I didn't really realise what was going on until I talked to a friend of mine saying that sometimes I think about stuff... She was totaly cool about it and she actually made me realise that this means something. Until then I was just draging these things out of my head. She turned out to be my first too...