Hey everyone! This is my first time on here, and I was hoping to get some advice. So I'm a high school senior in a small town, and I was wanting some help on coming out as bisexual to my family and friends. I'm only out to my best friend, who I told earlier this summer. He was very accepting and awesome about it, and has helped me through a lot. But now that I've told him, I want to tell my family and other friends as well. There's some problems, though. My entire immediate family (mom, dad, and sibling) is very homophobic. My dad only calls LGBT+ people “queers” or “faggots”, and believes that they wrongly choose their sexuality. He even told me once, believing that I'm straight, that If I ever bring a man home, for me to not come back afterwards. My family isn't really the only homophobic people I know, either. Some of my close friends are as well. And along with this, my entire high school isn't very accepting as a whole (small rural area, so it's still not up with the times). I don't really know what to do. I'm not happy without people knowing, because it felt great to tell my best friend. But I knew that he was pro-LGBT before I told him. There's only about 3-4 people total left that I feel like I could tell comfortably. Everyone else I'm not sure about, or I know they're homophobic. Normally in these situations I've heard to wait until you're out of high school or financially stable to tell family/close friends. But I'm truly not happy waiting much longer. Is there any way to break the news slowly or easier to them? Thanks.
Are you worried that they would kick you out or treat you badly if they knew? If so, I'd recommend you set up a back up plan if things go south. Is there anyone you can stay with if things don't go to plan? If you're planning to try to break the news gently, might I suggest dropping a few hints into casual conversation, test the waters as it were. Just to gauge their reaction. Plus I'd recommend you first tell the family member who has the least extreme reaction to that and who can be trusted to keep a secret. Hope this helps
My friend that knows about my sexuality has offered before that if anything should ever happen, I could stay at his house. And I'm thinking that my mom would have the least extreme reaction, so I might try and drop some hints around her and see what she does. Thank you for your help!
Good luck with that. I hope it works out. Most of the time things work out better that we anticipate. Your family might surprise you and take things better than you expect.
