Hey everyone, So I just wanted to post this to get it out of my system as much as anything. So as those of you who talk to me/follow my posts will know, I only came out for the first time about three months ago to a handful of good friends. But this week is fresher's week of university, when all of the societies, LGBTQ included, are holding events to try to entice freshers. So I persuaded myself to go along and just wanted to share my experiences. First one was yesterday, aimed mainly at people who were new to the society (who were in practice mainly freshers, so I hope I wasn't too out of place). I was ridiculously nervous beforehand, so much so that I was literally shaking, just because it's the first time I've ever been in a room where everybody knows I'm gay. But it went okay, I got through it, and a straight friend whom I dragged along for moral support is friends with the chair of the LGBTQ society, who agreed to look after me since I'm a bit of a "newborn". Anyway, my second thing was today - it was like a coffee afternoon but I could only go for half an hour because I was working the rest of the day, but this friend of a friend who's in charge of the society offered to meet up with me beforehand so that I wouldn't have to randomly walk in and feel ridiculous, and as I was less nervous this time it was actually good fun. I guess I wasn't there long enough to make any lifelong friends, but it was good having a chat to people so that when I go to the next coffee thing next Wednesday I'll at least have some people to talk to in an attempt to make friends. (Those of you who know me know how terrible I am at talking to people IRL, so this was a pretty major step for me. I really hope I manage to press on and actually make some friends, I really do.) I also bought a ticket for their bar crawl next Thursday! And the entry item is a beautiful LGBTQ wristband which I wore for the rest of the afternoon (although I still tried to cover up where I'd got it from from other people... just in case.) But all in all, I'm feeling a lot more confident about coming out to people and building up a support network and making some new friends and everything, so in that respect at least I've had a rather great week
Congratulations! I hope it all goes well for you, I know it's hard for us shy people to make new friends. What were the LGBTQ people like?
At least something is going well for you. I'll say that you've probably got more guts than I do when it comes to coming out. I even forgot to tell the hair stylist in Boystown that I'm transgender. The day before (they closed early), I was planning to, but I was still really nervous, and it probably helped with the nausea I've had for a few days, now.
They seemed really nice! I think a good thing was that there were a lot of new people there, so it wasn't very cliquey, which I know is an experience a lot of people have when going to LGBTQ groups for the first time. I'm really looking forward to getting to know some of them better though. Next event is on Wednesday!
