Coming Out, Part 1
“Coming out“: explicitly revealing your sexual orientation
It is difficult, if not impossible, to generalize about “coming out,” but, because I receive so many e-mail messages on the subject, I’m going to attempt it.
Is it risky? You bet. Matthew Shepard, Arthur Warren, and Paul Broussard (who I knew personally) were both murdered because they were gay and out. Countless others have been killed, beaten, ridiculed, denied promotions, discarded by their families, abandoned by close friends, dismissed as defectives, bullied, humiliated, insulted, and scorned because they were gay and out.
How many senseless crimes and unspeakable acts are committed against gays that we’ll never know about because the victims, the victims’ families, or law enforcement officials did not or will not come forward. What adjectives can I possibly use to describe these acts or these circumstances?
Yet, we come out.
Everyday — in rural areas, major metropolitan centers, college towns, the suburbs — we come out. Now, PLEASE, consider you’re own situation. Don’t out yourself if you are at risk of physical harm. If you live in an intolerant place or among intolerant, violent assholes, it might be better for you to WAIT before you come out. Wait until you leave that miserable hell-hole, especially if there’s no obvious support-system (family, friends, teachers, law enforcement officials, etc.) for you to access.
Tomorrow (May 6), I will identify some variables that either encourage or hinder the coming-out process. Despite these factors, though, it is to your psychological benefit to reveal your true self, if only to one or two other individuals — IF these individuals exist in your world.
