Hi EC! Long time since I posted... So, I nearly came out over AIM this weekend. I was about to type that it was a girl that I liked, but something stopped me. I don't know why, I guess that it was that I just dont know her well enough? For you, when you want to tell someone, how long do you take to get to know them before you tell them?
Happened to me a thousand times. You'll find, as you come out to more, that it gets easier and quicker. It also depends on the person. A lot of people find it easier to come out to new friends than to old, something I definitely found true, but also scarier, since you don't know what they'll do with that knowledge. But, ultimately, it comes down to how comfortable you are with being gay, bi, lesbian, or trans, and how comfortable you are with others knowing. Depending on how your mind works, you may never know when you're ready. You may just have to say, "I dunno if I'm ready or not, but I'm sick of keeping this secret. I dunno if I trust you or not, but I'd rather just have this out in the open." I had that thought process for a number of people, with others it was "I just told person x, and person y knows x and deserves to hear this from me." Good luck!
It different with different people, and I mean the people you tell not one telling everyone. I think it has to do with how important that person's view is of you, for example: I still haven't told my best friend because I worried about what he'll say. While, other I could shake off if they didn't approve. but for the most part I came out to people when I got so angry about having to hide that it burned away any fear. Good Luck out there.