Hey everyone, While I have known I was bisexual for several years, only within the past few months have I consciously acknowledged it / accepted it, before that I thought that I could just ignore it and date only guys...Once I had the freedom of self acceptance, I guess I was more open with how I would act, because I am fairly sure some of my friends figured out that I wasn't totally straight, and when they would make side comments alluding to such, I wouldn't deny it, so with some of them it hasn't been explicitly said but I'm fairly sure they know. Other than that I have had specific conversations with 3 friends about it and am out to them. So the list is small but growing. I would like to be more out w my friends, but haven't said anything to the ones who don't know yet, and I think it's because I don't want to be perceived as gay? I don't really know why I feel this way, but I think part of it is that many people stil see being bisexual as a 'coverup' for being gay, even tho that's not the case w me. I also went to catholic school for most of my life, and while I am not practicing now I feel like it created some internal, self homophobia for me, even tho I am totally accepting/pro lgbt rights, my roommate is a gay guy etc...has anyone else experienced something similar? I recently starting seeing a girl as well, and she is amazing, and I want to be open about our relationship should it continue/get more serious (which I think it probably will), but obviously my issues w being perceived as gay could cause problems..any advice for continuing my coming out process so to speak would be appreciated.
This sounds just like me. For a long time, when I was wrestling with my sexual orientation, I was convinced that everyone was going to hate me for being LGBT and that they wouldn't see me for any of my qualities other than my sexual orientation. I was deathly afraid of people thinking that I wasn't straight. As part of my self-acceptance process, I realized just how much internalized homophobia I'd built up over the years, and how much of it was baseless. Even just coming out to a couple people makes me feel more comfortable being myself around people I'm not out to. If they do think I'm gay/bi, so what? They're still my friends even though they might suspect. As for right now, I'm not dating anyone so there's no need to announce my sexual orientation to the world, and I can tell whoever I want whenever I want on my terms. Obviously if I start dating a guy people are going to have to know. I don't really have a whole lot of advice to give you, but I hope that hearing my story has helped you realize you're not the only one who's struggled with this.
