People's Reaction and Acceptance ?

In my experience, it is. I remember always thinking everyone was gonna hate me, then I started coming out and the biggest emotion everyone had was shocked. I haven't got one bad reaction yet, so I consider myself lucky.

 

I've never had a negative reaction from anyone I've told. I think in the current generation, people are more likely to have an issue with someone if they are discriminatory rather than if they are gay. From my experience, you come across as very backwards and out of touch to be anti-gay. Obviously this isn't the case with everyone but we're getting there.

 

Very much so. Both in that people tend to be a lot more accepting than we think they'll be, and that occasionally, some will take it as an opportunity to come out to you, as well.

Lex

 

I've had mostly positive reactions, especially at first. Be happy that you got a good response so far, not worried that you didnt!

 

I believe that there are a lot of factors that play into this. Not everyone has a grand, cheery experience in coming out. However, I'm glad that so far things are going well for you. At any rate, environment is a great factor. If you're in a liberal neighborhood, it's very possible that many people will be very accepting. If you're say in some redneck hic town in the south, well, maybe things might not go as well.

There's is also the factor of who you choose to tell. If you tell a close friend, even if maybe homosexuality isn't their thing, I think they would be much more accepting than if some stranger had told them. Likewise, if you were to tell a complete stranger, what are the chances that they would be accepting? (As an interesting side note, I read that studies indicate that most attacks on homosexuals are not done because the attacker hates homosexuality but because the homosexual is often an easy target and is less likely to receive authoritative support).

In addition, today in America, acceptance seems to be the new fad. I mean look at the conservatives and their allegedly gay-friendly "homocon." To be honest though it almost reminds me of a Mormon "friend" who said she loves all people (because her deity tells her to), so even though she doesn't agree with homosexuals, she still loves them. I find this rather awkward, and in many ways a complete fabrication. I mean, how easy is it for someone to say "I love all people" and then sit back and ridicule homosexuals because "I don't agree with it?" I can understand some people (imagine a kind-hearted member of the older generation) really are open minded, and maybe they do "love" everyone they meet. However, this "friend" of mine totally bashes on homosexuality and talks poorly of people she doesn't like (as many of us do towards people we don't like). It's just hard for me to understand how she can say she "loves" everyone when very clearly she doesn't.

Overall, I do believe that generally we homos tend to imagine a worse case scenario than the actual reality. However, I do believe we all get our fair share of "bad" coming out experiences at least at some point in life. I suppose though, that we should look at the number of "good" ones and cherish that, knowing that there's probably (hopefully) a great deal more good experiences than bad experiences.

That was kinda long, but those are just my unorganized, impromptu thoughts. Haha

 

I've been there. I think it's perfectly normal for people to be accepting, unless they've had it drummed into them that it isn't, which the vast majority of people haven't, and chances are not very many of your friends are like that anyway - you'll probably have sub-consciously distanced yourself from them.
The first person I told was gay, so I guess I took the easy and safe route about coming out; he was obviously accepting, as well as extremely helpful. But since that I've told dozens of people, and no one's been funny about it, or unpleasant, all just accepting. I won't deny that I had a few amusing / unpleasant experiences though, but they all turned out okay.
I remember I told my third person by Facebook Chat, and I didn't get a response for almost 10 minutes - turned out he was on a different tab looking at a different site, but it was an unpleasant wait .

 

isn't it nice to find out the world is a better place than we thought it was?