I'm Joshua, i'm 24 and have never been out to anyone before. I never asked as a child, but I was afraid of what my family would do. It was engrained in me that being anything but heterosexual was terrible and was painful. I came out to a group of friends over facebook and they told me that I was brave for it. I don't know how to come out to my family, if I should at all. Sorry if I jump around a lot, I've been going through a rough spot and my head isn't in the right place.
Coming out to your friends was a good first step, and for the most part, it only gets easier from there, the big exception to the rule often being family. Are you still dependent on your family in any way? Do you live with them? Do you receive financial support from them? If so, it might be better for you if you wait until you're independent and on your own feet before you come out to them. If not, you could always test the waters before diving it (i.e. coming out). You could mention a celebrity's recent coming out, or a state that recently passed gay marriage, and mention it in a positive light. If you aren't ready to come out and they ask you why you care, you can say something like, "I have friends at work who are gay, and I'm glad our country is becoming less hostile to them. They don't deserve it."
hey Shadow. I'm in a similar predicament (well with an added extra if you want to check out my thread). I recently told my cousin over skype and then it snowballed into a couple more close friends and a very reliable confiding aunty. It felt great to do so. I sympathise as now that I have come out to them I look back retrospectively and feel a great deal of anger towards my parents, especially my father. It just feels like I have been oppressed and not able to be who I am for fear of criticism at the very least. My dad was always very macho and prone to thinking it is humorous to wind me up in bigatory ways thus futher pushing me into tho closet with no desire to come out. Fortunately for me I live 30 miles away from my parents so my plan is to get my own place and just be who I am now; tell those people important to me and for the rest, if they ask i'll tell. Then in a month or so I will approach my parents and see their reaction. Im very independent of them but would hope they would be supportive towards me. I really hope you get some kind of support also and am glad to hear you have a great network of friends (that's what counts right?).
