I basically have two coming out stories for the price of one! :eusa_clap Hooray! First, back when I was in undergrad, I realized I wasn't straight, but I still didn't exactly know where I fell on the spectrum. However, I was going to study abroad in Japan for a year, and the whole experience had that sort of "jumping off a cliff and not knowing what's going to happen" feeling to it, so I wanted to tie up loose ends before I left. And that meant coming out at least as "questioning" to my immediate family and best friends. Everyone was supportive, although my parents were a little confused themselves. I went to Japan and met a wonderful guy (and finally realized that I was bisexual), and I simply never talked about my orientation with my family again after that, since he and I got married the year after. Only my immediate friends knew that I wasn't quite straight. Fast forward 5 years when my then-husband (now roommate) realizes that he's actually gay, and I realized that I'm actually more into women. So, we choose to end the romantic side of our relationship and stay good friends. Well, this means coming out AGAIN, since we basically looked like a straight couple on the outside. I was planning to tell my brother when he came to visit that weekend, and then my brother and I ended up on Skype with the rest of my immediate family (who live in another state), so I just came out to all of them at once. They were a little bit blind-sided by the whole thing but extremely supportive of me and my roommate (who they still see as a member of the family). The next weekend, I was surprising my mom by going home for Mother's Day, and I was able to come out to my Gramma in person, too. She was also extremely supportive (I wasn't sure how she would react, but she was awesome). After that, my roommate wanted to come out to his family, which he really only communicates with on Facebook. Of course, this necessitated me coming out on Facebook, too. My roommate wrote a beautiful post on Facebook (with my permission) about how we're going to stay good friends but that we both need to be with people that will satisfy our needs better, and we get this outpouring of support and love from extended family and friends. (*hug*) It was wonderful! The only real hitch in the whole thing was that I wanted to tell my boss (I'm an elementary school counselor, and he's the principal at my school) before the post went up, since I'm Facebook friends with him. I blushed and stammered my way through coming out to him, and to my relief, he was very supportive, albeit a little awkward (I don't think he has much experience in that arena). Now, I still have small coming-outs to other people who haven't seen the Facebook post, but it's getting easier every time I explain it.
