Came out to family

So I posted here earlier because I am a 23 year old bisexual woman, who after ten years just recently (2 days ago) has accepted that I am bisexual and I will no longer live in denial. AMEN. I told my boyfriend and he fully accepted me for who I am and told me he loved me no matter what. I wanted to tell my family but felt it silly to tell them I'm bisexual when I've been in a relationship with a man for 2 1/2 years. I also knew that my family is very accepting, and wouldn't have a problem with it so I felt it almost unnecessary. However I knew if I was ever really going to be honest with myself I needed to express who I really am.

So I decided the best way to do that would to be to send my family an email. Considering my brother lives across the country. So this is what my email said:

Hi Family,

If you can't tell this letter is from Headie, your daughter, or your sister, and I'm emailing you all at once. SURPRISE! This is very unlike me. Anyways, the reason I am emailing you all at once is because I love you each equally and couldn't choose whom to talk to first, or last. It seemed wrong to have to choose, and since we are a family of electronic communication, specifically emails, this fits the bill nicely enough.

You may want to get an alcoholic beverage now, because this is going to be long "letter"…

Now that your drink is full, I am emailing you to tell you something I have struggled with my whole life. For ten years I have feared who or what I am as a person. I have been very confused and spent a lot of my life in denial. However, with the help of each of you and your support, as well as the support from my boyfriend, I have been able to accept myself more and more everyday. I want to be able to live my life, authentically, without regrets or fears of acceptance, but it has been hard for me to just simply accept myself. And I think we can all agree as a family that we wouldn't want that for one another.

So coming to terms, and accepting myself, also means that I slowly expose myself and who I really am to the world and be proud of it and that is what I am going to do, for. After being in denial and putting myself under so much stress for the past 10 years to be normal, I now know that I have done more emotional trauma than was actually necessary. That is why I refuse to live in denial anymore. That is why I want to share with you that I have come to terms with who I am, I am a bisexual woman, and I refuse to allow myself to live in guilt for another ten years because of the way I was born. Just to make it more clear and save some us both some embarrassment, here are some answers to common impeding questions; No it is not a phase. I have never been so sure of anything in my life and that is why I am taking the time to tell you, so I hope you can respect that. Also, no I doesn't mean I need to be in a non-monogomous relationship, dumb question I love my boyfriend very much. That being said, my boyfriend supports and accepts me for who I am and whatever I am, no matter what. I hope that each of you can be proud that your daughter, or sister, is strong enough to reveal her true self to the world and support me for whoever I am as well. If you can't understand or respect me for who I really am then I am sorry, but I can't be anyone else. In fact, you are the one's who made me who I am!!! If this is hard on you, then I am sorry, but put yourself in my shoes."
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As for responses, my sister immediately text messaged me and told me how proud she was of me and that she loves me no matter what and that I was so brave. My dad also emailed me back and said that he loved me no matter what, unconditionally and accepts me for who I am. He said he was sorry that I had struggled with this for so long and that they could of helped. He also told me that my grandma's cousin is gay and has been with her partner for a very long time. He also told me that I remind him of a talk show host but never wanted to tell me because she is gay and didn't want to offend me. My stepmother and brother were also very accepting! YAY!

This means the world to me, IT IS SO NICE TO HEAR IT.

 

Thanks for the reply and for reading my lengthy post! I am so happy to have people that accept me and I hope the world is able to do this for others as my family did for me.

My Dad said that I remind him of Rachael Maddow because she's stylish, smart, and funny. I'll have to watch some of her news casts sometime!

 

Thank you so much for reading my loooong story! I'm glad that I could share this with everyone and that I can help others find a way to live an authentic life as well.

I don't really know my grandma's cousin since I'm not very close with my extended family but your right people in that time period weren't as accepting as they are today! I would love to met her!

 

Nathaniel, I hope so too! I must say emailing them was the best way for me to do it. Because my family always communicates problems this way. So do it in the way that makes the most sense to you. You could write a letter or send an email or text if you don't want to do it face to face. Just if you do it that way make sure you get all of your words and point of views out before sending it! Thats why mine was sooooo long. Best of luck! You deserve to live an authentic life too!