I was talking to some of my more conservative friends tonight and somehow we started talking about New York and they were like it would be fun to visit but i couldnt live there too many gays. Then they were like gay people are fine as like friends but not as like really close friends. Now they dont know that Im gay (obvi) so its funny in way because im well one of their close friends. I was planning on coming out in like the spring but I dont know any more I really dont want to lose them as friends. :/
The thing with conservative friends is that coming out to them can do one of two things: 1) the thign we all fear - they ditch us cause they're too narrow minded to accept their friend for who they truly are. or 2) they come to terms with it. I find its ususally this one. I had a conservative friend, who in the most literal sense inched away from me when i came out as bisexual as high school, and she wouldn't go near a girl who was presumed gay. A few years later I came out saying that I like girls, and after a few talks with her, she finally seemed to get it, and we've been good friends ever since. It sometimes takes them a bit of time to get used to the idea that a friend of theirs is gay, but either they'll get used to it and your friendship will become stronger because of it, or they'll ditch you in which case they were never your friends to begin with.
My Best friend, the first person I came out to, is one of the most conservative people I know. He took it amazingly well. He's also a bit of a Redneck. Great guy. If these friends don't want to be your friends because you're gay, regardless of their political alignment or whatever, you probably shouldn't be friends with them anyway. But not because you're gay, because they're ignorant. Or you can try to help them to understand that being LGBT isn't a bad thing. Touch call eitherway.
You'd be surprised how people will be when you're the one who's gay. One of my close friends was notoriously conservative, unpopular in our group of friends because of his old-fashioned views on women in society and gay marriage. But he was unphased when I came out to him, and he was the first one to text me when I was published in a letter to the paper on a gay rights issue, to tell me that it was well written.
Well, despite what some may think we (conservatives) are not all monsters. The fact is friends will stick by you no matter what (unless you just simply screw them over) If they leave you simply for the fact that you are gay were they really a friend to begin with? Probably not. Even tho I'm not really out, I know that the day that I do come out, my friends will still stick by me because I am the same person I always have been. It may be a little awkward at first, but is always is with these things.
Just christine O'donnell... and the parts of karl rove not currently contracttually bound to Baphomet. one half of my family is conservative leaning, and they accepted me without question... mainly because they know me, and know me not to be anything like all the bullcrap that makes up the mainstream conservative hatred of gays.
In my experience, and that of many of my friends, often times the coming out of a gay person to a close friend who is conservative or otherwise bigoted and intolerant can be the beginning of a transformation. Often people are bigoted or intolerant against things they are ignorant about, and therefore afraid of. When someone they have known for ages suddenly comes out, they are forced to realize that the beliefs they hold about gay people aren't true, because their friend doesn't fit their preconceived notions. So often, the result is a change in attitude that affects not only their friend, but their views on other gay people as well.
I don't think conservative means intolerant or bigoted. Certain people find homosexuality wrong and disgusting (some of those people are conservative, some of them aren't). If you think your friends will think that about you if and when you do come out then maybe it would be a good thing to party ways.
I came out to a conservative-leaning independant friend of mine. Her response really surprised me. She had some reservations, but overall, she was okay with the whole thing. It really gave me the courage to come out to other friends. So far, only one person has really had a problem with it.
