This seems like such a silly question. We'll refer to the friend in question as Q. Q and I have been friends for 15 years, and she's my best friend without a doubt, but I have this weird urge to protect her. She's a religious "good girl," so we all have a tendency to tiptoe around topics like sex and alcohol and sexuality. My problem is that I'm at a point in my life where I want to be able to be myself around as many people as possible, so I want to talk to her about my sexuality, but I'm concerned because we've never had a thorough conversation on this sort of topic, so I can't estimate her openmindedness. I'm going to be spending pretty much the next two days with Q, so I want to be able to be as open as possible, but I'm afraid that her Catholic beliefs will prevent her from being accepting and I really don't want to lose my best friend. I apologize if this doesn't make any sense: Please let me know if you need clarification. Does anyone have any advice?
You can be surprised at how many people can understand. I would say just try to ease in by sort of reminding her that you both have been friends for a long time and that you really just want to share a part of you that she may not know about. Also that its not that you have changed - you are still you as you have always been. I know I was concerned when I came out to one of my best friends who grew up in China, where homosexuality is a fairly taboo concept. She was very accepting and it didn't change our friendship at all.