I came out to my family last week, to mostly supportive reactions. However, a lot of my family is advising me to be discrete in who knows. While I don't want to wear a "Hello, I'm gay" t-shirt, I don't want to hide or be in fear of people finding out. Any thoughts on maintaining the balance?
First congrats on coming out to your family! Well if you are at a university or a similar setting, you have to be prepared that once one person knows, pretty much everyone in the same major/department will know sooner or later. Unless you have a small group of tight-lipped friends and you have to constantly remind them not to tell. I started off by telling my close friends (my family only knew very recently). Then very soon I realized random people I never really talked to all knew. To be fair, I never told my friends to keep it a secret and I did/do not care who would know so it's all good.
Congrats to you too! I'm at a university, and I'm afraid that the random people who would find out would be mean about it. Was that ever a problem for you?
Not really. But I came out when I was starting grad school and most folks around me were at least 22 years old and had grown out of the high-school mean kids mentality. Also in grad school you don't get stuck with a certain group of people since you tend to see a different crowd in each class. All in all I don't think people my age or younger care that much about sexuality these days. Not in the US at least. Some might not wish to associate with lgbt people but I have never encountered anyone who would go out of their way to say/do hateful things. Of course this depends on your location too. The biggest obstacle usually comes from one's own family so don't worry too much if you have that sorted out!
