Coming Out Stories

Story 1

My parents were always very liberal, but I had a hell of a time coming out to them as bisexual. My coming out was a lame comedy of errors. At 13, the first person I "dated" was a girl. My parents ignored it. At 16, I sat my mom down and told her I was bi. She looked constipated and told me it was a phase. I was so embarrassed that she didn't take it seriously that I kept in the closet for years. During high school I wanted to tell my friends but a lot of my other friends were coming out and I didn't want people to think I was just getting on the bandwagon (and that it was just a phase). In college, at 24, I told my mother I was dating a woman. She didn't like it, because she said it would make life hard on me. The pressure to simply fall back on your hetero side was incredible. I can see why a lot of bi girls end up with men. It really is easier. But I wanted to be out and I wanted to date this girl so I sat my parents down and spelled it out for them. It was difficult and they didn't want to hear it (after I dropped the big bomb my Dad rolled his eyes and my mom asked me if I wanted spaghetti for dinner). I insisted that we talk about it. It was very nerve wracking and really embarrassing to try and tell these people who think they know you better than you know yourself that they are wrong.

Over the next few days...weeks...years the questions came. They realized it wasn't going away and then they got curious. Even though they were the cool parents with gay friends it was so obvious that they had no clue about what it meant for me, and what the gay community was actually like. I was disappointed but I was really determined to be taken seriously, and I wanted them to know me. It still makes them feel funny I think, but they have long accepted it. The other day my dad texted me to tell me he'd seen the new Mad Max movie. He said "Beautiful deadly women in the desert. I know you liked that." It made me feel great that we had gone from rolling eyes at my bisexuality to relating with it (sort of.). Sometimes you'll be disappointed by the people who you think will be in corner, but just because they don't come around right away doesn't mean they won't.