What made you come out?

I was walked in on when with my bf/fb. It was pretty obvious to anyone with eyes I wasn't straight when they saw that.

And that happened more than once. Damn those teenage hormones!

 

I wa having daily panic attacks and felt like I was suffocating. I HAD to have someone to talk to, or I was literally driving myself crazy. The first person was so awesome, that then I figured I'd try another...and another. So far, I'm out to about 12 people, and it's gone splendidly. I'm done for now...eventually I'll have to clue my extended family in, but for now close friends and immediate family is enough.
Good luck to you! It's scary, but what a weight lifted off your shoulders when you know there's at least someone you can really be you around and talk to. (*hug*)

 

I had a burning desire to cut my boobs off. It was a logical thing really - I thought someone might notice.

 

When i came out to my dad, I didn't even 'plan' it. There wasn't any epiphany or life-changing event that made me decide to come out to him. I just suddenly asked him (in a very scared and unsure voice) "Dad, would you mind if your son was gay?" because at that very moment i felt like i couldn't hold it anymore.

 

I don't think I had an epiphany. I was tired of not being true to myself, and letting myself be the real me in front of my friends and family.

 

I felt I was repressing myself too much, and it was starting to seriously weight on my psychological state which is already not in the "best" state possible, so I had to get this out of the way.

 

I backed myself into a corner. Plus I made the stupid mistake of posting a video on YouTube for a contest where the winner got to go on a "Gay Camping Trip" with some other LGBT folks and make friends.

In hindsight, I was the furthest thing from ready to actually come out - but I am one of those people who's never really ready and always awaiting the perfect moment.

 

I'm not out with my family yet but I told my closest friends last year because I knew they would be accepting. I have felt great since telling them because I don't have to hide who I am anymore from my friends but I think coming out to my family will be more complicated.

 

I was about to kill myself--or attempt to. I came to the realization that if I wanted to continue living, it had to be as a woman from that point on. It became impossible for me to stay in the closet, so I came out.

 

I wasn't happy with who I was trying to be, it didn't feel natural to me. When I realized I might be a lesbian, it all began to make sense to me. I was sick of hiding who I was. Now I'm much happier

 

Mine was on a whim. And not a "good" whim either. I had just met my friends, two of whom would become my best friends/sisters for life, and I remember one of them telling me about her coming out and how her mother embraced her as did most of her other relatives.

I made the rookie mistake of projecting her fairytale into my life and......Have you ever seen that youtube video of the fireworks that went wrong on the 4th of July? Well it felt like that. Alot of sudden pops, thunderous roars, flashes of light and so much panic and distress. It was a VERY big mistake that i'm still paying for to this day.

Though it sucked/sucks especially since it feels like I did it and got nothing back, it had to happen. Not like that but it needed to occur because when I think of who I was back then, I was going to become one of those kids that ran so hard from it that I would've done ANYTHING to escape the reality of it.

Unfortunately a few weeks ago, certain memories came back to me and I remembered why I was so repressed.

So to anyone considering it, ANALYZE your situation carefully and honestly, don't try to make someone else's happy ending your's. It'll most likely end terribly.

 

I started questioning myself and then when I realized just what I was, I just HAD to tell my friends at school. I couldn't keep it a secret from everyone. I HAD to tell someone, so I'd have someone to talk to and have someone who knew the real me. And then I got a boyfriend and didn't tell him for months cuz I was scared to. But I eventually felt bad for hiding it from him and told him as well. I've told a few family members (two cousins and sister), but have yet to tell my dad and just openly come out to all my family. I'm kinda scared to, especially since my dad's really homophobic. But the more time passes, the more urges I get to just tell my dad and get over with it already. Because I'm kind of getting sick of hiding it from him, hiding such an important part of myself from him. I don't want him to hate me for it, but at the same time, I don't want him to love me for the person he THINKS I am.

Also, I'm out at work as well. Tho I didn't come out to them. I came out to one person at work and was trying to work up the nerve to tell everybody else, when he told them for me. I guess that works... >_>

 

For me, the impending divorce focused the mind...while still in the "closet of befuddlement", I actually thought that, after the divorce, I would finally be free to find and marry the "right" woman...

My subconscious rebelled at this and kept me from sleeping, it intruded into my thoughts with memories of women whose advances I turned down (which I interpreted as regret, not crucial information).

Just one more sleepless night in February threw me over the top, and I haven't looked back, I have grown into who I am!

The next day I came out to a colleague at work, and have been coming out ever since.

 

I came out when I knew that I was gay and no one else knew and I had to hide it. It was really getting to me, mentally, and I was getting anxious and a little depressed. But I finally told me best friend and she kind of helped me through it and helped me accept myself. I was finally ready to accept myself fully and now I am slowly coming out because I don't have to hide it anymore.

 

Mine was an epiphany given to me by a child of all things. I just got out of my 8th failed relationship and was talking to my friend Ginny about it. She was in-turn venting to me about her ex-husband and their messy divorce. We both were equally miserable and wanted to spend time with someone else who wouldn't treat us like garbage, so we ended up hooking up. I took Ginny and her daughter Hannah to their church where the message was about being honest with yourself. The entire time I felt this constant uneasiness while sitting with both of them. I had that uneasy "I'm in the wrong role here" feeling that I always did while dating, but I shook it off thinking it was first date jitters. Afterwards we went shopping at Toys R' Us where I rather excitedly helped Hannah pick out a few new toys and a Sunday dress to buy her as a gift.

We went back to Ginny's home where she had to deal with her ex being a prick on the phone, so I went with Hannah to her room and played tea party. While playing Hannah just blurted out "You're nice, but I don't see you as a new Daddy. You act more like a big sister. Daddies don't enjoy being a girl as much as you do.". There I was in this tough biker guy image looking dumbfounded. I looked around the room and then realized that I felt this combination of envy and sorrow that I never had any of the things she did. It was like all of the things I bottled up for years hit me all at once. I realized then that I loved my girlfriends as much as I secretly desired to physically be them. I also realized that I was jealous that they could act feminine while I was always shoehorned into a "male" persona.

Ginny then came back upstairs and thanked me for spending time with Hannah. She shooed Hannah out of the room and then tried to cuddle with me. By that point I looked like a deer in headlights; I was shaking, struggling to keep my composure. When she asked what was wrong I broke down in tears and confessed everything to her. We're still good friends, but it started to snowball effect of me coming out.

 

I figured out/concluded I was gay and just started telling people within a couple of weeks. It didn't really occur to me not to...

Todd

 

I don't really know why I came out all of those three times that I've had to.

I guess because I was tired of a cisgendered, heteronormative life established and exampled by my parents on how I should be expected to live my shitty life.

 

I had always had bad luck with picking up women. I knew if things looked hopeless, I could always date guys, but I really wanted to have a girlfriend first before coming out as bi otherwise I was concerned a lot of people would think I was gay. (At the same time, there were always fears in the back of my mind that if I came out, I'd end up taking it back Bowie-style later on and I didn't want to be that guy. I wanted to be sure I could carry the label for the rest of my life if I announced it).

So the getting a girlfriend first plans went to shit in college and after dating a couple girls and finding myself hopelessly inept and jittery (and coming across as very alienating) around them due to my lack of experience, I decided to try dating guys, get my courage back up and then go back to the ladies. It required coming out to everyone but it was worth it, and after about a month of publicly identifying as bi I began to really get into it and I started wishing I'd done it much earlier.