I finish school this coming October and I'm feeling ready to come out before I leave. I've struggled with my sexuality since 14, and I'm now 18 years old. At 14, I denied it. I hid it, and I forced myself subconciously to behave and be straight. I did this so well that I couldn't even fathom the fact that I could possibly be gay... I did stupid things with men, date done and was really sexually involved with some boys during my denial stage. At age 16 I began really questioning and searching for who I was. I began to acknowledge my attraction to women and once I did it seemed that all my attraction to men - which was very low had gone. Or maybe not gone but I realised it was never there in the first place. I'm ready to come out to friends... my best friend I know would be very accepting as she's always said she supports the LGBT community and I have another friend like that too. But as for the rest of the girls, they are quite homophobic and rude especially in regards to lesbians. I'm in this group of friends who are viewed as popular and so on... in all honesty I hate it and wish I never got involved with them in the first place. I've drifted from these friends, and so has my best friend. Me and her have a mutual friend (the other one who openly supports lgbt rights), she sits with another friendship group and her best friend who's in another school is gay aswell! I'm thinking of somehow coming out to these two friends very casually, then perhaps hoping it will spread or what's another way for it to get around school without me being so direct and blunt???? If my other friends reactions are as bad as I'd think, this just gives me a good enough reason to finally ditch them. I just feel I need to tell someone as I can't seem to focus on school work atm because it's all that's on my mind.
First of: Congratulations for accepting yourself! Well, here's the thing. You have some great friends that you know openly support LGBT. Naturally you'll want to tell them first. You can just slip in there "BTW, I'm a lesbian" then move onto a random subject if you want to be casual. Or mention who you've got a crush on or who ya fancy a little bit. Or ask what your friends find most attractive or most necessary in their potential future partner. When you reply you can mention "Well there have to be a girl" or make it funny. You can always put in an anatomy pun. :icon_wink As for coming out to the whole school casually, you can just wear rainbows and LGBT pride stuff a lot. You can buy bracelets or rings or a flag, or just a rainbow shirt. Of course you can just always make a joke in the classroom depending on how strict your school or teacher is, and people will catch on and likely the word will spread. As for your friends in the popular group that are homophobic: forget them. You admitted you don't really like them and sometimes it's not easy to just jump ship from a clique because we're afraid of bullying or backlash or something or another. I had this problem once, although it had nothing to do with my sexuality. So yeah, basically just ditch the ones who don't accept you or the ones you don't like. No need to make yourself miserable, especially if you're accepting yourself and you've got LGBT friends. You're going to be in good hands. Question though: you're willing to come out to your whole school. What about your family? If you're in high school, depending on your circumstances, it could wind up to your parents. Are you okay with this? If not, maybe you should consider being public at school if word could get around to them somehow. :goodluck:
Firstly, t's really great that you're finally at a place where you feel ready to be open about your sexuality, I'm so pleased for you. And you seem to have the right attitude to it. It's been a few days since you posted this, have you made a move or still waiting?