Jan 07 2009
Should You Hide Your Sexual Preference From Family And Friends
Many people have a hard time telling family and friends that they are gay. They choose to not tell anyone about their sexual preference and live a secret life. This of course is not healthy. You should never be afraid to say who you are and what you like. This can cause undue emotional stress and lead to many mental and emotional problems.
You should always be honest and the people that care about you or love you will understand. If family and friends do not accept you for who you are, then it is their loss not yours. The world is changing and more and more people are open to accepting those that are gay. You should never be afraid of saying who you are for any reason.
If you are gay, tell your friends and family so that it does not come to a complete surprise if they find out from someone else. They can only respect you more for being truthful and not hiding it from them. If they have problems with who you are, maybe they would appreciate talking about it with you or someone else.
I never felt so free as when I finally stopped living in ’secret’ and came out in the open to not only friends and family but community as well and it was scary, but not so bad after it was out. Not near what I thought it would be. The acceptance was overwhelming, the love unconditional in friends and family has been such a blessing and has made life that much Better.
I am happy for you. It is very important to be yourself. It is very important for people to accept each and every person no matter who they like or their perference in partners. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Concerning your blog on “Should You Hide Your Sexual Preference From Your Friends and Family”.
To those who come out I say Congratulations!! you are truly blessed and lucky that they were open and welcoming to you. I think it is truly wonderful to those that have the courage to come out. But, sadly everyone is not so open. At 40 years of age I dug down deep and got enough courage to come out to my friends and family and I have not spoken or seen family in 7 years and have no real friends to speak of. It was a choice I made and have had to live with the results. Everyone on my job now knows and its a little difficult. But, I still hold my head up and continue on with my life. I am truly not whining, but, the straight world doesn’t seem to accept me because I am a lesbian and the gay and lesbian world doesn’t seem to accept me because I appear to be straight. But, I am not. I love women. The thing is I don’t have the traditional lesbian look. I guess I am somewhere between “butch” and “femme”, so no one can really tell. In my opinion, I’m just me.
I feel that you be happy with who you are. Sometimes people do not understand, but I have a hard time knowing that some families just will not accept loved ones for who they are. You had the courage to be direct and that is what everyone should look at and not that you are gay. There are some that look and act gay, but more so, many people, you would never know.