Hi. I'm not terribly adept at...well, any kind of technology, really, and I have no idea how "starting a thread" works (I'm pretty sure I was born about 30 years to late, I'm such a technophobe), but I'm gonna give this a try. In an effort to introduce myself, because this place seems really cool. I'm 26 years old. I came out as a lesbian about 6 months ago, to everyone. I had an extremely religious upbringing, so it was difficult for me. After a messy divorce from an even messier man, I decided it was time to be truthful with everyone that I valued, because I felt that they deserved my honesty. My mother was oddly accepting, and really very happy for me. I'm pretty sure she's an alien inhabiting the body of the mother who raised me, but I'm gonna let it slide because it's nice to have one person on my side. My brother was very nonchalant about the whole thing. Which is his M.O., so I guess that went well. My sister says that she doesn't know if she's a "gay ally" but that she's my ally, whatever I am. That's not so bad, eh? My brother's wife was...not so happy about it. She seems to hold the opinion that I shouldn't have made it public knowledge. And she posted some hurtful things on Facebook about not "supporting homosexuality" or "homosexual marriage", but that she loved me anyway and yes, we were still friends. (I found that last bit, incidentally, to be quite condescending on her part. Perhaps it's just me, but I don't believe I asked her.) Their children are following her lead, or their own convictions. And so they don't want much to do with me either. We were always so close, such a tight-knit family. I absolutely believe that everyone deserves the right to their own opinions. And the freedom to express them. If I want these things for myself, I have to respect others enough to accept the same for them. I guess I just didn't expect it to hurt quite so much when I saw it all, in print and all. I'm a bit of a hermit outside my family, don't have many friends to speak of. And, living in the middle of nowhere, there is no LGBT community to speak of. Lately I feel very alone, even though the love of my life is right here with me. I thank God for her every day, and I love her so much, but sometimes I think she doesn't quite understand, given that her family is not so close. Anyway, I'm so sorry to take up so much space! I didn't mean to write a novel. Besides the ridiculous drama, I'm an avid reader, amateur poet, and I love to cook. Ok. I'll stop now.
Welcome to EC!!! Hopefully the "stragglers" just need extra time to accept you for you! You’re the same person they knew after all, just more open to yourself.
Hi and welcome to Empty Closets! :smilewave I've only come out as transgender to my mother and best friend so I haven't yet seen my entire family's reaction to me. I have a bad feeling it won't be friendly...:dry: especially on my dad and stepmother's side of the family. So my "coming out" story is yet to come. Outing myself to my best friend was surprisingly very well. Not that she's a closed minded person at all but for some reason I had expected her to react the same way my mother did. My friend was very accepting as for my mom...not bad...but not good. It was very, very frustrating. Beginning with she didn't even know what 'transgender' means :eusa_doh: So, yeah, staying on the same page was difficult. It was I guess a recent thing so it's still new for her to accept and worse we haven't talked about it since. She's very quiet on the matter. I'm only sixteen so I still live at home, so that makes it even more difficult. ugh. And pahlease don't worry on how long your threads are! EC is an open communtiy and should accept everyone's stories no matter how long. I myself think the longer the better, it helps getting to know the person. I like to write and read so keeping-it-short is near impossible for me. (can you tell?) Don't limit yourself. :eusa_naug
