Happy 35th National Coming Out Day! How and when did you come out?

[marylander1940]

Celebrating ‘National Coming Out Day’ on October 11

WWW.CBSNEWS.COM

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Entertainment host and cultural commentator Ryan Mitchell joins us to talk about the importance of the holiday and having the courage to celebrate your true...

 

National Coming Out Day: 10 celebrities who came out in 2023 (so far)

WWW.NBCNEWS.COM

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From “The Last of Us” star Bella Ramsey coming out as gender-fluid to Japanese pop star Shinjiro Atae revealing he's gay, here are some of the year’s notable coming out...

 

OP note: I didn't come out... they (family) simply figured it out, later on I openly talked about it with my nephews and nieces, they all knew already!

[pubic_assistance]

I was never "in".😉

But, I remember my first realization that I was different from other people.

My mother picked me up after my first day of Kindergarten. She asked me about my day. I said the teacher was nice and I met a cute girl and a cute boy. She quickly corrected me and said that although the girl might be cute, the boys are just friends and you don't call them "cute" or think about them in that way.

So I thought about it and decided to never discuss it again with my mother ..because that boy was definitely cute. 🤣

[+ nycman]

“Out” to my best friend at 17 (the first).

”Out" to my parents at 25 (the last).

After that there was no "In". 

[marylander1940]

2 hours ago, pubic_assistance said:

I was never "in".😉

But, I remember my first realization that I was different from other people.

My mother picked me up after my first day of Kindergarten. She asked me about my day. I said the teacher was nice and I met a cute girl and a cute boy. She quickly corrected me and said that although the girl might be cute, the boys are just friends and you don't call them "cute" or think about them in that way.

So I thought about it and decided to never discuss it again with my mother ..because that boy was definitely cute. 🤣

I guess you already had an agenda back then!

[alageorge]

Came out to my sister and close friends in high school in the early 1960's. Have been out socially and professionally since the early 1970's.

[pubic_assistance]

13 hours ago, marylander1940 said:

I guess you already had an agenda back then!

My "agenda" is that you're gonna like what (or who) you like and no matter what someone else thinks about...that's not gonna change.

"You do you", has always been my mantra.

 

Edited October 12, 2023 by pubic_assistance
punctuation

[marylander1940]

55 minutes ago, alageorge said:

Came out to my sister and close friends in high school in the early 1960's. Have been out socially and professionally since the early 1970's.

the 70's.... wow! It was very tough back then even if you were in a more accepting part of the country and in a big city!

 

[+ José Soplanucas]

My coming out was a long process that started in 1983, when I embraced my homosexuality (I was 21 and had been playing with my cousins since our early teens). It was long because I was in many social circles and did not come out to all of them at once. Of course, the critical date is when I came out to my parents and family in 1985. 

We should replicate the positive gay visibility effects and develop a Sex Work Coming Out campaign, with famous Joes and Whores looking at the camera and saying -I am into sex work. Guess on what side... (with mischievous smiles) 

[caramelsub]

For me I think coming out is almost like an everyday occurrence. People always ask me if I have a girlfriend. Including some of my previous bosses and coworkers. I remember I was eating donuts alone at a krispy kreme shop and a lady facetiously asked me “does your girlfriend know that you’re eating krispy kreme donuts without her?” I just chuckled and told her I’m single. I wasn’t just going to tell her that I’m gay and into guys. I’m a pretty masculine acting guy so people just assume I’m straight. At this point I’m done sweating over having to acknowledge being gay every day. Though I wouldn’t say I’m closeted, I’m just fairly selective of whom I choose to tell or let know.

Edited October 12, 2023 by caramelsub

[Becket]

I was eight years old at summer camp. One of the counselors was just drop dead gorgeous and I noticed I felt "funny down there" whenever I saw him. Sadly he was not my counselor so I never got to see him in the shower. But I remember wondering why it was every time I saw him my heart skipped a beat, and I just longed to be in his presence. In school the following fall some bully called me a homo. I asked an older kid who I trusted what that meant, and after he told me I was able to honestly come out to myself. (That's sometimes the hardest person to come out to, IMHO.) Tried to hide the fact from the rest of the world for as long as I could, but a few years later my best friend and I were upstairs dancing to Three Dog Night. The dancing turned into wrestling, which turned into hugging, which advanced to experimental petting. As years went on he and I regularly touched and groped and explored. Sometimes we noticed our penises had a really neat feeling once in a while. I'll never forget the first time he had one of those feelings again, and this strange white stuff came out. Of course we tasted it and it tasted warm and salty. Then I "borrowed" my parents book on sex positions that they had hidden in Dad's bedside table. The heavens must have been giggling at our trying to do what the book said. It was a comedy of errors. Over time I told my story to people I trusted. I was truly fortunate as no one ever got grossed out or stopped being my friend. 

I still only tell people I really trust, and though the world has changed I am still careful and reserved in that area. Guess I'll be "coming out" to folks for the rest of my life.  

Thanks for this thread. It was nice to reminisce.

[+ poolboy48220]

Late bloomer, I was 37. I told the friend I was about to share a rental house with first, then my youngest sister later that year. I joined the local gay swim team, found my "community", and got the courage to tell my parents and the rest of my family after that. 

[+ Charlie]

I came out to myself when I was about 15. I realized that I was more attracted to guys than to girls.

Had my first sex with a young man who picked me up in the men's room of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC when I was 17. When I told him he was the first, he was very informative about the "gay" world (I had never heard the term before--it was only used within the gay community in those days). I came out to my best friend the next day by telling him about the experience, and he admitted that he had been having sex with older guys since he was 12! However, we were never sexually interested in one another. (Like me, he was attracted to more physically mature males.)

Came out to my parents when I was 19. I had had a minor nervous breakdown at college, so they sent me to see a psychologist, who told me that hiding it from the people I loved was causing my emotional turmoil. I broke the news to my parents, whose first question was, "How do you know?" At which I burst out laughing. When I then told my steady girlfriend that I was sexually attracted to men, she said, "Is that all it is?!" But she agreed that we should probably not consider marriage, and I never had another steady girlfriend.

After college, I went to graduate school in a big city and lived in a gay neighborhood rather than on campus, so most new acquaintances probably assumed I was gay. I came out to all my new friends. When I started teaching, I came out to most of my colleagues if they asked. I came out officially at work in the mid-1970s, when I proposed to teach a class on gay literature, and the dean didn't question my competence to do so.

I came out legally at 70, when I married another man.