I came out to my 8-year-old brother a couple of months back, but when I did, I was disappointed by his reaction. He seemed pretty indifferent to the news and was more interested in cracking corny jokes than actually paying attention and supporting me in the conversation. Yesterday, though, when he and I had been getting along very well, I told him to come to my room and then started to tell him about sex/gender stereotypes and said that I would support him if he turned out not to conform to them. Once I was sure that he was equally accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, I told a white lie and said that I understood all of this because I had a very close friend who was non-binary when in reality, I don't have any friends, but I'm non-binary myself. And once I was sure he understood what being non-binary meant, I revealed that this "friend" was actually me. He was super supportive and happy to know, and although he's only 8 (and usually acts much younger) he approached this with compassion way beyond his years. As I come out to more and more people, I'm becoming more prepared and eager to come out to more people, and I have made a plan to come out at school that narrowly avoids the obstacles that have been holding me back until now. (I'll post another thread soon if you want to see more about this plan.)
His initial reaction seems fairly standard for an eight year old. My daughter is around a similar age and we’ve discussed pride in age appropriate terms and within a context she’ll understand. Glad that it went well the second time around!
