Hi I've recently come to terms with the fact that I'm a lesbian. According to the coming out article on this site I'm currently around stage 2 of the coming out process. I've yet to tell anyone. I know a couple of my friends would be supportive, and my sisters would probably understand, but I'm positive my parents and brother would not. My brother makes a lot of anti-gay and lesbian comments and says he finds it disgusting, and my parents fall under the category of we accept gay people but don't believe in gay marriage. I'm from Canada, but live in Alberta (which is more conservative than a lot of the country) and I'm scared that coming out is going to make life more difficult and limit opportunities for me. I came to this site to talk to people that will understand what I'm going through and start trying to make friends in the community I guess. I do want to come out to the people in my life eventually, because I think I've come to the conclusion that I want to be happy and live my life and that the only way I can do that is to fully be me. I'm just really scared.
Hi Jenn288! Welcome so much to EC! (*hug*) I know exactly how you feel about coming, as i have just started to come out to a few friends & a couple of classmates & faculty at my college in the last couple of months. Believe me, I really do understand how frightening & nerve-wracking the whole thing is. I live in a really conservative part of SW Ontario, and I hear a lot of anti-gay & lesbian remarks sometimes myself. But I do take comfort that while people's attitudes are somewhat narrow, that you & I both do live in Canada, so we do have the benefit of the Charter Of Rights & Freedoms, specifically section 15, which protects us against discrimination. I'm studying law right now & this is definitely something Ive checked a little bit into, so while it may feel for the both of us like our options may be limited, we do also have the protection of the law, so try not to worry to much about that. As for people's attitudes, don't worry too much about coming out to people just for the sake of coming out, the most important thing is to just take things at your own pace & be safe & comfortable as you do it. And if you ever need to chat or have any questions, everyone here on EC is phenomenally supportive, so don't hesitate to ask or just be yourself here! (&&&)
Welcome! My parents have similar attitudes as yours do toward gays and lesbians. It's rough knowing the people who ought to love you most don't understand, and feeling scared is only too normal...I'm scared to talk to my family about this as well. I think that your parents' attitudes may be changeable, because once they know that you are gay, the plight of the LGBT community will become personal to them, and they will likely come around to supporting gay marriage.
