Hi I am a new member on this forum, this is my first post. A few weeks ago, my cousin from New Jersey came over for a full week. At one point he and I went to eat ice cream and he came out to me. And I also told him I am gay. And we hugged and everything. But then the next day, we went to the beach with some family, and it got awkward, at least in my opinion. When we were at the beach, it was me, my twin brother, and my cousin. We were just in the water talking about this new game called Overwatch. Then, I brought up the show Steven Universe. And as the conversation went on, I brought up Ruby and Sapphire. They are two characters who technically have no gender but have an implied lesbian relationship. I remember I talked about how I hated that in Russia they gave Ruby a mustache and that I liked how they made them homosexual. And that there was no problem with them being two females. After that I realized how it was very inappropriate to bring up homosexuality, a day after my cousin and I came out to each other. I felt like I betrayed my cousin. Even though I never told anyone he is gay, and still never have, I just felt bad that I even brought up homosexuality in general. I felt bad the rest of the day. I felt that he thought I was trying to bring up homosexuality to bring up the fact that he is gay, which was not my intention at all. I didn't tell my cousin about it, but he cousin didn't seem mad or anything, he still joked around and was nice as usual, but part of me felt that he noticed how awkward it was for me to bring it up. Since a few minutes after I brought it up he got out of the beach. But I might be over analyzing it at this point. Now it's been a few weeks, and he's already back in NJ. I am tempted to apologize to him about bringing it up, but I think it might be too petty and he might have not even thought about it. I felt that my cousin and I had an actual connection that night and me bringing up homosexuality at the beach kind of hindered that bond in a way, I don't know. Thank you for reading, any advice would be immensely appreciated.
Please go with the temptation. Start by saying, "I want to apologize to you for being awkward and possibly making you uncomfortable, when we were talking with my brother. If this made you uncomfortable, I am very sorry." If you are overreacting, he is going to tell you. If not, you will be showing that you are worthy of his confidence in you, in telling you his secret. You'll be keeping the communication open in the future, and you will be reassuring him (even if he wasn't at all offended) that he was right to trust you. These are the reasons you should do this. It will if anything make your friendship stronger.
I agree with this. Oh and welcome to EC! Hope you will find your stay here pleasant and fulfilling (*hug*)
Hey sorry I haven't replied in awhile but I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who told me to apologize. In the end it all turned out fine, thank you all for encouraging me to talk to my cousin about it.
