Mastering the Art of Coming Out (and Making Lobster Bisque)
“I decided to make lobster bisque for my mom at the same moment I decided to come out to her. Only one of those things went according to plan.”
You Need Help: How to Navigate Disabled Kids Coming Out
“That she talked to you about this at all is a beautiful and important thing that a lot of young people don’t have. So know that just being there for her is already making an enormous difference!”
This Is The Real Ellen DeGeneres Story: Remembering “The Puppy Episode” 20 Years Later
“She was an attractive woman, you know. If she hadn’t told us she was a lesbian, she could’ve been in a Miss America contest!”
The 11 Best Holidays For Coming Out To Your Family and Friends
Here’s what you do: write “I’m Gay” (or trans or bi or queer or whatever) on a piece of paper and put it inside an Easter Egg for the Easter Egg Hunt. Someone at your family gathering will find it, and it will lead to mass confusion as everyone tries to figure out who the “I” is referring to in the note. Now your Easter party is a Mystery party!
Loving the Whole Me: A Bisexual Mom on Coming Out to Her Family
“I sent a short, simple message saying that although I didn’t realize it fully until recently, I was indeed bisexual, that this was an undeniable part of my identity, and I could no longer comfortably hide this fact.
He never responded.”
Team Pick: “Coming Out With Care,” the E-Care Package For Your Parents!
Here’s a resource to help you and your parents navigate your coming out together!!
Impossible Machinery: On (Not) Coming Out to My Dad as Bisexual
“I feel as if I am filled to the brim, fit to spill, with how much I love her and how much I resent being a secret. It makes me feel invisible and alone but I stand by her. I stand by her until I can’t anymore. When we break up, I am more determined than ever to come out to my father.”
I Didn’t Know How to Be Poor, Black, Biracial, AND Queer; So I Wasn’t
“I wasn’t in denial, I had just become extremely successful at compartmentalizing difficult emotions that I had no idea what to do with.”
Coming Out To 50 People At Once Was So Much Easier Than Doing It One-on-One
“That’s right!” I shouted, feeding off their energy. “Clap because I’m gay!”
26 Fantastic Excerpts From Your Coming Out Stories
“I was sobbing continuously and finally blurted “I’m gay!” and then Skype, wonderful technology that it is, DROPPED THE CALL.”
You Need Help: How to Best Be There for Your Newly Out Asexual Friend
In which I talk to my asexual brother about what they wanted and what they did when they first came out as ace.
A Fragile Dance: Queer Brown Futures (Or Lack Thereof)
“Why do we only collect coming out stories, it-gets-better stories, these stories that are set in the past, that tell of a particular set of experiences that not everyone can relate to? Stories that treat the future as if it doesn’t come with a problems of its own.”
You Need Help: Coming Out In Your Mid/Late 20s
The fact that you’re working through all this now doesn’t say anything negative about you or the way you moved through life for the past 24 years. What you did then was valid, and what you’re doing now is valid.
10 Tips For Surviving Your First Family Holiday After Coming Out
So you’ve recently come out to your family, and it’s the first time you’ve been to holigay dinner since it happened. Autostraddle is here to help you through it.
Coming Out to Your Friends: The Autostraddle Roundtable
Come out, come out, wherever you are! The Autostraddle team gives you tips on how to come out to your friends.
You Need Help: Do I Call Myself Bisexual?
“I’m attracted to more than one gender, but am not sure what label to use. “Queer” resonates with me, but am I contributing to bisexual erasure if I don’t ID as bisexual?”
Becoming Visible: On Coming Out As Bisexual
“I guess I’m still sort of coming out. I’m learning to embrace my sexuality as a primary part of my identity rather than an afterthought. It feels really good.”
You Need Help: I Came Out To My Mom (Again) And You Can, Too
“I cried on the plane. I realized, stark as night, clear as day, that the silence was killing me. Instead of moving through a moment, I was trapped inside of purgatory.”
Learning to Use Chopsticks: Coming Out as Korean-American
“At 27, I came out as Korean-American. I was always Korean, of course. I checked the “Asian” box when filling out a form. My ethnicity was written on my face in the shape of my eyes and my small flat nose. But until a few years ago, it wasn’t an identity I felt connected to. There were many identities that came first — poet, bisexual, queer, feminist, activist, organizer, fattie, vegan. Being Korean was a fact, but not an identity.”
You Need Help: Where Do I Go From Here
“When you unearth one thing you didn’t know about yourself, it can be an opportunity to dive in and know all the things you were afraid to. It’s the scariest thing you’ll ever do and the most valuable.”