Hello Beauties!
Some of you know what today is. But, if you don't know, today is National Coming Out Day! For all of you that are looking like O_o "That ain't a real day," it tis, it tis. Let me tell you about it:
National Coming Out Day was founded on October 11, 1988 by Robert Eichberg and Jean O'Leary. It was a celebration of the first gay march on Washington D.C. held a year earlier to promote awareness of gay, bisexual, lesbian, and transgender rights and to celebrate who they are! It is a time to publicly display gay pride, and many choose this day to come out to their parents & peers; to personally accept their sexuality and disclose it.
I found this funny story while on the 'net the other day about one young man's announcement to his mother:
The day I came out...
... to my mother turned out to be the most terrifying and anti-climatic day of my life. Even though her and I are extremely close, I'd played the dramatic scenario of eternal rejection over and over in my head. I just knew once I told her, it was going to be the last conversation her and I would ever have. But it was important for me to share that new and exciting part of my life. I decided the night before Thanksgiving would be the day. I was freshly 18 and figured she wouldn't dare cause a scene on the eve of a large family gathering. In my head it was the biggest gamble I would ever take.
So, while baking a cake (go figure) I concocted this brilliant plan of bringing up very emotional family memories in an effort to soften the blow. I brought up things that made us both cry regularly, usually during an episode of Matlock and the weekly pedicure I gave her. I saw her eyes start to water. Now was my chance. I put the mixing bowl down, washed the mud mask off my face and led into the announcement.
"Mom, if I tell you something will you promise not to reject me?"
"Sure..." she muttered while clicking the remote.
"Are you sure you won't throw me on the street and stop loving me?"
"Uh huh..." She managed to utter while fanning her freshly painted nails.
After a grueling 10 minutes of her obvious lack of interest and my continual tears, I stated my purpose:
"Mom... I'm gay!"
There was silence. My stomach dropped and my heart felt a thousand pounds. She waited until Matlock made his closing argument and looked at me emotionless and said, "Honey, I've known that for years! Now come give your mom a kiss and hand me that nail file over there." Little did I know that her best friend was a lesbian and blew my cover a long time ago. My drama filled announcement was little more than confirmation of the fact. (Posted at: http://gaylife.about.com/od/comingout/a/nationalcoming.htm)
Aww...I like happy endings. Seriously though, if you are reading this and are feeling leery of coming out because of what people may think, know this: you need to be honest with yourself to begin loving yourself. Only then will you find someone that truly loves you. The REAL you. Everyone is going to have their own opinion. But for every person that doesn't support you, there's 20 more that do.
And if you're still having second doubts, here is a link to an interesting campaign HRC (Human Rights Campaign) is doing for National Coming Out Day. It's called Conversations From the Heart, a series of videos encouraging open dialouge about homosexuality amongst families, friends, and peers. I think you'll find it interesting: http://bit.ly/35prYw
Wishing you a Happy Coming Out Day! Be blessed!
0 comments:
Post a Comment