How has coming out later in life affected your friendships? Both opposite and same-sex friends. Do you have a harder time being friends with people of the same sex after coming out? Did coming out change how affectionate or close old friends were to you?
I don't know yet. My three best friends since childhood know and have responded in a loving supportive way, but I'm not living an out life yet. I wonder if that will change once I am in the future. I know once other close friends and acquaintances find out I will lose people for sure. Because it is going to come out alongside the news of my marriage splitting up, people will feel confused, hurt, angry, betrayed, lied to, etc. I won't be able to explain my coming out process to everyone in my life. I've come to accept I am going to have to let go of how others will choose to think about me and the assumptions and judgements they will make.
My three best friends (and even my husband at times) are already using humour to ease the tension. Lots of lesbian jokes.
Great questions. My experience with the few friends I've told (I'm Bi) has been loving acceptance. But these are good old friends living far away from me. I do wonder how friends in closer proximity would react.
Coming out as gay hasn't affected any of my friendships, most of my friends are straight but nothing has changed
I generally agree with @silverhalo. I'm out to everyone now, and it doesn't really seem to have changed my friendships much at all. The only change would be that I'm closer to some friends now than I was before because I'm being more genuine with them, and it has improved those friendships. I didn't have any gay friends before coming out, so I've made a lot of new friends in this process.
