I have been considering coming out via social media, and just dealing with any consequent backlash as it comes along; however, I am not so sure that it is necessarily a wise decision. I am living on my own(with roommates who already know and are supportive) and financially stable; the thing that worries me is that if certain members of my family see it then I may never get to talk to them again. I feel like the latter is unlikely, but the nagging fear of its possibility is always in the back of my head trying to talk me out of it. Does anyone have any advice to offer on the subject?
Those members of your family will find out eventually, unless you plan to stay single for the rest of your life...
I agree, furthermore, you may want to consider if it's better for them to find out from you directly or from Facebook or word of mouth. If, someone else tells them that they found out via Facebook and they are passing the information in, then your family may be upset that you didn't go straight to them. Additionally, they may not get a full accurate picture of your feelings and thoughts on the matter and so get the wrong picture. If you tell them up front, at least they are getting an accurate picture of what you feel and you can answer their questions. Of course I'm not trying to push you into doing something you are not comfortable doing. Just giving you some food for thought.... Hope what ever you decide to do works out ok for you, Happy days
I think that is probably going to be my course of action once I am done with coming out to the important and close people. Just take into account the feelings of those who are important to you, for example, I want to give my parents more time to process it before "the world knows", not because I feel ashamed, but because I know it is hard for them and I love them It is nice to care about people but in the end your sexuality is just another aspect of your life and, while it usually makes things much better, you do are not obliged to come out to everyone (personally or not). if you have a very large extended family/ group of friends it is not very realistic to come out to everyone individually (and an uncomfortable perspective in my opinion).
It's not the same of course, but I had family members facebook-spy on me and find out about my first engagement when I wasn't totally on speaking terms. It was awkward when it started, and it was awkward when I broke the engagement, but I got over it. There was only one kind of mean message from a cousin, which was funny because we had never even had a conversation half that serious before then. She made a lot of unfair, stereotypical assumptions, but it didn't really matter what she thought. I was more peeved that people I had not even friended were facebook-stalking my relationship status. But it was my own fault, I wasn't proactive about it. And I learned my lesson. I would advise that if there's anyone in particular that you care about that you're worried would react badly, send them a personal message also, let them know that you're serious and this is a part of who you are, and their feelings are still important to you. Give them the opportunity to talk to you more if they might want to. Best of luck to you.
