I have a friend who is very religious. He is straight. According to him, all gays will "burn in hell." When he said this, it upset me a lot. Even though he upset me by saying this, I value his friendship greatly. How should I tell him that I am gay without him completely shunning me? He is one of the people that is in my closest circle of friends. It would be weird for him to not be my friend any more. Advice?
I've always looked at it this way, if somebody dosen't like me just because of my sexual orientation, then they are not truly my friend. It's his decision when it comes to accepting you or not. When coming out to religious people that I know are homophobic/transphobic, I always prepare for the worst, but hope for the best. I prepare myself mentally in case the person decides that they never want to talk to me again. I also come up with plans so that if that person outs me to other people with the same beliefs, I can have a plan to deal with it. As I said before though, in the end it's his decision how he want to take the news. If he no longer wants to be your friend, then he was never your friend in the first place.
