Member-only story
Coming Out Is Still Important
Greater acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community doesn’t diminish the impact of coming out.
Six years ago, I came out to all of my friends and family via a Facebook post. I started off slowly by telling some of my closest friends through text earlier that year, but I decided to announce it to everyone else through a journal entry I had written earlier that day. I was so nervous that it wasn’t going to be received well that I turned my phone off and took a 2-hour nap. When I woke up, I was amazed by the comments.
My friends and family were so supportive of my announcement. In total, I woke up to 52 comments of people telling me they were proud of me. I woke up to my dad leaving me a voicemail telling me he was proud to call me his son. And I had a text from my mom asking me why I hadn’t decided to tell her first. I came out because I wanted to live my truth as authentically as I could and went to bed that night knowing that my truth was accepted. However, as generations of people become more accepting of the LGBTQIA+ community, you are seeing as some people decide they longer need to come out.
