Facebook

Seeing that not all my family members know (im out to my sis) i leave it blank. Which is in a way telling people i am gay. A few people at school know, hell even some teachers. Once i get the balls. I'll put interested in women. I did it for a few minutes once and it felt amazing!!!! Then i changed it back to blank -____-

 

to be honest most people dont even look. it took a month for my best friend to notice i changed mine...

 

In my experience, people rarely bother actually looking at a person's interested in status. People generally friend their RL friends on Facebook, and so figure there wouldn't be anything on their info that they don't already know.

Case in point: my Facebook has said I was gay for more than a month now, and the only person who had noticed was one of my oldest friends who happens to be gay as well and knew the whole time (as did her mother; wish she could have told me). Incidentally she was thoroughly unsurprised when I said it directly, and didn't even react.

I've had to actually post to my own wall regarding the fact to get people to notice. Luckily, that means this whole week has been full of accolades and numerous invites to hanging out.

So outing yourself on Facebook is fairly minor as far as I've experienced. Important differences: my family doesn't use Facebook, and my entire circle of friends it seems has been waiting for me to get over my love of the jumbly bits.

 

Mine is blank. When I first created my account, I actually did put in "Interested in: women" even though I knew it was a lie. I carefully took it down a few months ago; nobody has mentioned the omission.

With the new changes, if I were to actually change it today, it would actually appear on everyone's live feed...which I'm looking forward to letting happen when it happens. :lol:

 

Mine says women.

I had it as women, then I changed it to blank at the beginning of the school year because I had met a lot of new people and I wanted to tell them, not have them find out like that, then I changed it back because, if that's going to make them not be my friend, eff them.

 

I only look when I am curious about someone specifically. I leave mine blank, just like my relationship status.

 

I was already out when I signed up for Facebook, so it's been at 'men' since then, but people rarely notice it tbh, when was the last time you actually read someone elses?

It's the same with relationships on FB actually.. everyone just assumes you're friends with the person if you set it to your bf.

 

Yeah, I think people rarely look at it unless they have any real interest in doing so.

I told a few more people I was Bi in the last month, most of them are old friends I kept in contact with on Facebook. It's been on my facebook for months that I'm Bi. They still acted suprised.

 

i was thinking about changing mine also...but i just wanted to change it not have it pop up on everybody thing...
so can someone confirm that it will come up on everyones feed or not that would help me...

 

In Sept 06 when I registered for facebook, I put men. Then a month or so later I decided not to lie, but not to be open yet... so I took it down and left it blank. I came out in April 09 but put Interested in Women on my facebook this September.

 

Well if you ever decide to out yourself to facebook think of the consequences of it. Once I went to PFLAG and this mother of a gay son who never came out to her came out on facebook where alot of his family is there and never came out to them before. After the son came out on facebook the son said to the mother I just came out as gay on facebook. It came out as a shock to the mother, and as a result she and her son had to phone all of their relatives to say the son is Gay as if a relative of the son reads what the son said on the profile then word will spread.

It would have been more bearable if the son did not out himself all in one go without telling his mother first.

 

Yea, I agree. Tell your good friends -> friends -> family (so you have support and what not first). Then if you feel you want to share with facebook and extended family go for it.

 

it didnt for me when i did it this summer.

 

I only have friends and one family member (my sister) friended on Facebook, so I felt fine putting that I was interested in women. My sister was the only person I was closeted from (and actually hoped to keep it that way sometimes), but I didn't remember to change my profile when she friended me. Turns out, in over a year, she hasn't once noticed that or changed relationship statuses.

 

i do believe it does show. it showed when my friend changed his.

it just says " SOANDSO changed their interested in"

 

There is an option in the privacy settings -- you can choose to show or not show status changes.

As far as me being out on facebook, my status is "engaged to Stacey" :-D
Her name could be a boys' name, but I have several pictures of her in my photos including one of us kissing. ^__^

 

Do it for the cause

Recently three friends came over to discuss gay action in our state. We didn't realize they were all afraid of dogs when we invited them over to our apartment with our boxer-pitt mix. Even though she is super friendly, we could'nt convince them not to be afraid of her so she was put in the bedroom out-of-sight and out-of-mind.

I think their fear of our dog is comparable to the mass's fear of gay people. The bottom line in both situations is that people who are scared have never had a good experience with a dog / a gay person.

I feel that us being out on facebook to our friends and family creates a positive experience with a gay person that they otherwise would'nt have put into that category. By me being out, these southern republican preacher-type people who knew me in high school (and cared enough to friend me) suddenly know someone they like who is gay! I feel this personal connection is our most effective tool for achieving equality.

Your out status and lovely genuine self is a powerful tool for changing the anti-gay hearts on your friend list. We want to be in their minds as the gay person they care about so that they think twice before they say or feel something, or VOTE in a way that hurts us.

 

Initially when I registered in '06, I left it blank. A few months ago, I ended up putting down I was interested in men. No one seemed to notice, though I think I did delete the status change news feed item from my profile page.