I'm not sure what I wanna do. My parents would be over supportive, but I don't want that. I like being treated as masculine and I have pride in that, however i hate secrets that are as deep as this. I'm 14, 6ft

I'm not sure what I wanna do. My parents would be over supportive, but I don't want that. I like being treated as masculine and I have pride in that, however i hate secrets that are as deep as this. I'm 14.edit: I live in Hawai, so being in red state won't be a problem.

Hi there, to start I'm not English so pardon the mistakes. I (21F) was just chilling with my family getting news and had a really rough week and lots of personal stuff going on. And then my sister just says then go for girls next time, and then add that it's not like we couldn't predict it. Mom's go silent, my dad too and me just chocked, don't know what to do, try to play cool. I tried speaking to my mom, acted cool and everything but it was just like speaking to a wall. After texting my sister she said it was a joke to my mum and says that she believed that it was a joke but my mom came to ask me back if it was true and I awkwardly stay silent for 3 seconds before saying that I'm almost always attracted to boys but keep an open mind because we don't know what's the futur made of. She says ok and then it's bed time. No I'm just crying in my room because I don't have anyone to talk with, my friends are far away, no boyfriend, no best friend (had a fall out recently) My sister said she was going to help with my dad (he's just not in the fight, still acting like usual) I don't have the energy to fight with my mom and after a lot of fights before I was finally close to her and know I don't know how it's gonna be, I'm scared that she will be closing the door but I really need her now, more than ever and my sister just maybe ruin everything. Thanks for reading and I will read your comments, see if it helps

I‘m a girl and I discovered in the last months that I am in fact bisexual. I like men and women. I haven’t felt comfortable with myself for so long and I‘m still not 100%, but my self acceptance journey is going quite well. My problem is that I‘m carrying this knowledge with myself and I can’t open up about it to my parents or my best friend (girl) because they are all kinda homophobic. My mother especially. I would love to talk about it to my best friend but I‘m so afraid. She has told me that she didn’t feel comfortable being friends with a lesbian back in the day because she felt like the girl was having a crush on her. My heart is aching, I wanna tell her so bad. I wanna talk to her about it but I’m just so afraid that it would ruin something in our friendship. I’m sure she wouldn’t feel comfortable changing in front of me anymore or to hug or cuddle or anything similar. I must note that I do not see her romantically or sexually in any possible way and also could never, she’s my child hood bestfriend and she’s rather family, like a sister, than a friend. It’s such a weird feeling to keep this little secret to myself since we share every single thought we have with each other. There’s been a few instances in which I felt like I should tell her, one of them was just 2 days ago. Me and my best friend were at a thermal bath and we sat outside in one of the whirlpools when two girls approached us and we all came to talking a bit. I complimented the piercings of one of the girls and found out we both love piercings. I do not have a lot but I mentioned that I used to have a septum, to which she laughingly asked me if i was a bisexual. Then I realized that she was a bisexual too.I did not know how to answer this with my best friend next to me, who thinks I’m 100% straight, so I just stared at her for an eternity without saying a word, thinking of an appropriate answer, then I just replied a „no“. I wanted to say yes so bad. I feel like the girl noticed my hesitation and the weird look that had to be sitting on my face but she didn’t speak up about it. I’m very glad for that. The girls left soon after and I felt the need to tell my best friend that I had to admit something. But I didn’t. I can’t do it. It’s gonna make everything awkward and I just can’t risk ruining this friendship. Or can I? I’m just so scared of her not trusting me anymore. I mean I could understand her because she just can’t possibly know that I do not care about her tits or find her sexually appealing in any possible way because it feels incestous to even think about it since she’s like a sister by blood to me. I just wanted to rant on here a little because I’m tired of keeping this to myself. Also fyi I don’t have any experiences with other women yet but my attraction is telling me that I am bi. So it’s not like I’m hiding full on relationships with girls from my bestfriend. Does anyone have a similar experience? How did it go?

My mom has always said she's supportive, she had no problem with me being lesbian, but I realized I'm genderfluid a while ago, and told her, but she ignored me completely, like- didn't say anything at all, and a few weeks later said she was "glad she didn't have any trans or genderfluid kids, not that she doesn't support people like that, she's just glad her kids aren't cause that would make their lives so much harder" to me I was the only one in the car when she said that, and now I have no clue what to do, all my friends know and so does my brother, but I don't know what to do, any advice?

I am a bit young and I don't know if my parents are homophobic. They must be transphobic though since they've made many comments. I know I'm bisexual, I've kissed a girl before but gender wise, I feel non binary. Issue is, I have a nearly 1 yo sister. How can she understand that? Inevitably I will be stuck being called a she for a while until she picks upq on what everyone else calls me. Also, my name is Irish for golden princess. It's quite clear why I want my name changed but my parents could never allow it. As the cherry on top, my parents split up. My mum might be okay with it, since she let's me buy LGBTQIA books. I'm not too sure how my step dad would react. However, my dad and his girlfriend have made explicitly homo/transphobic comments. They are both fine with trans people if they get surgery but otherwise, not fine. What do I do?

So basically i came out as a lesbian to my dad....and he just replied "Cool chicks are hot".....i went to my room and burst out laughing.

I need help. (coming out)

So I(13, closeted ftm) came out to my mom as genderfluid a while back. I knew I wasn’t genderfluid, I wanted to test out masculine pronouns because I knew I had horrible dysphoria and being a girl was shit, I just didn’t know what would work out best instead. The reason I didn’t just tell my mom “hey, I fucking hate being a girl and it makes me want to die, I’m gonna try being a dude, yeah?” Was because she has this view that all trans youth or trans people that aren’t passing yet are just confused. She thinks that the trans men with beards and stuff aren’t because “ohh they look like they tried real hard to be guys so, they are very sure.” so I knew if I told her I was “testing it out” then she would immediately tell me I was just confused, just a phase, yadayada. So telling her a definitive answer would sound more “sure” to her. She accepted it, with a “ok, I need some time to process it but I just want you to be happy” but then we never spoke of it again, she doesn’t use different pronouns around me, and I’m pretty sure she assumed I forgot or something. Well, in my time of testing out pronouns and names, I found out that I’m most DEFINITELY a dude. The only problem is, how do I tell her that? I have a whole script that I plan on texting her, but I haven’t had the courage to do it. She has openly bullied other trans people or said some jokes in bad taste but she switches up lots of times and it makes it really hard to predict a tone or reaction. Just overall tiring.

I need to come out by 2028 for a few reasons,

1: that would be the year I start high school, and my mom is planning to send me to a Christian high school (gayhater school pretty much) so if I don’t do something by then, I’ll have to live high school as a girl and i won’t be doing that. I’d legit rather die.

2: 2028 is the year that the re-election happens and right now, trump is president and if he goes thru with project 2025, HRT will be banned, a lot of queer support groups will be thrown in the burner, and overall right now is just a not good time to be gay.

I’m going to link the script I have in the comments since it’s incredibly long and I don’t want to overwhelm anyone that doesn’t want to read it (I don’t mind if u read it or not)

Some things to keep in mind if you do read it:

Lucas is my highly conservative Christian, anti-queer brother

AC is the high school I mentioned earlier.

Well just like the title says.. i don’t know just how gay I am.

All my life leading to up to now, I (26F) have strictly only dated men, shit I’m even currently married to one.

However since i was very young I had felt somewhat of a pull or attraction to women. I remember being a child and “experimenting” with my other female best friend at the time up until we were caught by parents and it became a huge thing of never seeing each other and lectures of how we shouldn’t do that kind of stuff, yada yada. By the time i also hit puberty and started learning about masturbation and pornography, my go-to to get off was always lesbian porn. Or imagining stuff with a woman. Even in my early adult-life when I would go to bars and drink, i would get drunk and make out with my female best friend. But I’ve never done anything more than what I’ve mentioned, never had sex with one nor have I had a relationship with one.

Anyways, for the longest i just brushed it off as maybe it just being some kink for me because I have always been with men and I could never envision myself being actually “in love” with a woman, like the way I’ve been in love with men. I could see myself having sex with one for the sake of pleasure but never could see if i could ever have a committed relationship with one like i’ve had in the past with men.

Now to get to the punch, I’m currently separated from my husband due to him being an abusive liar and cheater 🤠 (won’t go too into detail with that) and well there’s this girl within my friend group who i’ve known for a while on pretty much just a friendship level, she’s openly gay and has been for the longest. And well, her and I have always had a great vibe together but as of lately we have been talking and hanging out a lot more.. There’s been a little bit of flirting between the both of us and her doing/getting me things to woo me a bit.. and i’m ngl it’s working. I know she’s also had this fat crush on me since we first met and i’m ngl she makes me FEEL a little something that I never felt for any woman before but I’m not quite sure if i’m overthinking or it’s because i’m vulnerable with the fact I am going through a divorce and just want to be loved ?

I really do want to dive into it and give women a chance, to see what i might be missing out on but i just don’t know… With all that i mentioned is it possible for me to have an emotional connection with a woman too instead of just a physical one ?? Has anyone gone through this and can share their experience ???

i have a wee bit of tea 🍵 I'm pretty sure I am bi and I came out as that to multiple long-term friends of mine who were out or showed support and I kid you not every single person that I told said "yeah I figured" or smth related 😭 it honestly cracked me up so much, i only started giving hints about a week before but they said or implied they knew even before that lmao 😂 it took me a longgg while to come out to myself (admit to myself I did have these feelings) so it does make sense. thankfully they were all supportive (some indifferent lol) 😌❤️ edit: I told a group all together about that and one of the girls was like "oh yeah" and then wanted to hear what other tea I had like she had already known I was bi for a while then cracked up when she realized that I was coming out.

I’ve come out to a few people but not my family/parents or my male friend group yet as I’m not completely sure of if I’m gay or bi. I know that my parents would support me no matter what but it’s still a big deal to tell them. I’m worried when I tell my male friends it will change our relationship. I don’t find any of them particularly attractive but I feel straight guys think any gay/bi guys secretly fancy them. The guys in my group already call me the “gay” friend and make jokes about it, so I’m pretty sure they all already know, but I think after I confirm it things will change. I’ve only told them about the women Ive kissed/slept with and not the men that I’ve kissed when I’m out with my other friends. I just still want them to be chill with me and stuff like sharing a bed on a holiday or at a sleepover wouldn’t be a big deal. I would still be the same person I was before. What was your experience like telling your straight male friend group ? And did things change after you told them ?

It’s been a week since I told her, and I’m just now starting to feel easy bout it lol.

It was our mom’s birthday, and we were on our way to get her gifts.

Before that though, i had discovered some fraudulent charges on my card, earlier that morning.

The charges were to a gay nsfw site that I had been frequenting… and I was super embarrassed.

Despite my embarrassment, I knew better than to keep this sorta thing secret. (I’m 18 btw)

No one else was home, except us, and I figured if anyone, she would be the best to tell.

I told her I had found some charges to a normal site, that I didn’t make… and she was really understanding, witch made me relieved, and more comfortable.

Then, we took her car to ulta beauty. On the way there is when I came out.

After telling her about the charges, and feeling more comfortable around her, I had figured that, now, of all times, would be the best.

“I don’t really know how to say this, cus this is kinda weird, but ima just say it… (sister’s name) I’m uh… gay…”

That’s how I said it, to the best of my memory.

I instantly felt my face turn red, and I was super nervous when I was saying it.

She was super chill about it, and overly supportive lol.

It made feel so relieved…

We had a long talk, and I clarified that I didn’t want to be treated differently, or thought of, as “the gay brother” and how that was partially why I was nervous to come out.

I just told her, that I didn’t say anything, because I was afraid that, I would be treated differently by her, and everyone else. Ya know, like…

“OMG, Yass queen~! Slay~!”

Not that I have anything against that… it’s just not who I am.

I don’t really know how to end this… sry

Edit: I only told my sister. I’m not ready to tell my whole family :3

Hi, Y'all.

I've got a friend, my best friend, actually. I'm 21M and he's 20M, but the age gap is just 29 days, he'll be 21 on 05/12. We met in a party 2y ago, and he was the friend of a friend, we never thought we'd be this close, but he sleeps in my house, loves my cooking, we got the same music taste, like the same movies and I met his grandma yesterday. GOSH WE EVEN SHARE THE SAME NAME and I got him a job (I'm his boss, actually). We stay up late looking at IG reels and laughing, drinking and such. We're comfortable enough for fart and burp in front of each other, share the deepest secretes.

I feel terrible for this, but I actually noticed I liked him in the start of his last breakup, he'd spend much more time here, drink more often and not want to drive home drunk, so we'd sleep in the same bedroom more days of the week, and when they finally broke up, I couldn't feel sorry for him, I thought it was my chance, so I could never really help through it all, even more when he wants to get back with her.

I know it's extremely selfish of me, and maybe he just needed someone to talk to, and maybe I got the idea that he liked me because I never really had guy friends. But the way we laugh at the dumbest shit together, or when he tries to make me laugh by tickling my nose, it's just so fucking confusing, cause later when I suggest any possibility, he's like "f u gross" or "f word" and deny ever being bi, even thought we kissed twice already, and in front of others, but never did anything by ourselves.

(We keep work and real life very separate, in fact)

I really just needed to vent, but any help will be appreciated. So, Am I trapped in a "Too scared to make a move" kinda situation or is it all just in my head and we're just bros?

i know my parents and friends support it but what is the best time to tell them?

So I (15M) recently told my friend that I was gay. That was really difficult for me, and she told me that she supports me and that she is okay with that (She is Christian so I didn't know if I should tell her). So the next day, I try to avoid talking to her, not completely because I don't want her to think that I don't like her anymore because I didn't want her to talk to me about it, I was not ready. So after school I was ready to ask her to talk to me seriously, face to face. She said "I'm busy rn, it's not the right time", so I said ok. At school, everything went fine, she talked to me like any other day. But after school today, I asked her again if we could talk if she's not busy, and she told me that she doesn't want to talk to me, and that "something happened and that she's not free today", so I told her that it was not necessarily by text, because tomorrow we have a lot of free time and we could have a little chat there. But she left me on seen and doesn't talk to me. Please help and sorry if this isn't so understandable, English is not my first language.

I (42M) recently realized...well admitted to myself if I'm being honest, I'm trans. I have always known I was bi even if I didn't admit it outloud but being trans.. well I was born and raised in Oklahom (still live there) by my grandparents. While not once have I ever heard a negative thing from them on the community I was too scared to admit when younger and now as my 91 yr old grandma's caretaker I don't want to put strain on whats left of our bond due to her dementia...

God i just needed to admit it somewhere... I'm trans... transitioning or not. I'm me...wow this harder than I thought...

https://uofsc.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6mNYjErHu0gexTg

Hello everyone! My name is Lizzy Combs (she/her/hers), and I am a doctoral student at the University of South Carolina College of Education in Columbia, South Carolina. I am recruiting for an LGBTQ and more health research survey that examines strengths-based factors such as coping strategies, individual resilience protective factors, and family resilience protective factors on members of the LGBTQ and more community, especially as it relates to substance use. I hope that the results of this study will inform counseling and other mental health treatment practices as well as treatment outcomes for LGBTQ and more individuals.

I am looking for participants who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, are aged 18 and older, and live in the United States. Participants should also be able to understand and communicate in English.

To participate, you may select the link above and answer questions (mostly multiple choice and multiple answer, also a few short answers). This survey may take between 15-30 minutes to complete. You will not be asked any personally identifying information. There is no compensation for participation.

If you are interested in this study, please select the link above. If you know anyone who may want to participate, please share the link above with them. This study has been approved by the IRB and if you have any questions, please comment below this post or email me directly at combsel@email.sc.edu.

IRB approval letter is available to share.

Thank you for your consideration!

Lizzy

I'm a AMAB cis gender guy (for now? ) in my 40's and am pretty comfortable with myself. I started exploring my gender expression and sexuality in my 20's and it was tons of fun. Long story short, I did and bunch of cross dressing all through my 20's and had a few encounters with men. For me, being with men was vanilla for the most part and I'm glad I tried it out.

I came out to the first friend as a cross dresser in my mid 30's because my ex tried to use my cross dressing to attack me. I had sent her an email about the cable box that she didn't return after our break-up. It was costing me money. That's when she said that she would tell everyone that I knew.

I panicked for a few months and decided to take the power away from her by coming out before she could attack me one last time.

I was at a good friends house and when we were pretty drunk, I sat on the couch and had him sit on my right side. I didn't know how he would react and he is a trained fighter. I'm not a fighter and I wanted to at least keep my left hand free incase I had to defend myself. I told him and he didn't believe me at all. I said that I have pics if he wanted to see. He asked and I showed him. He kinda teased me about my style and we both laughed. We stood up and hugged each other.

He's a brother to me now and one of my biggest defenders. I know I can trust him with my life and we are always cheer leading for each other's success. We are also there for each other when life gets hard. We have been friends for like 20 years now.

I even recently told him about my experience with a few guys. He said that he kinda figured that I've done all kinds of stuff and joked about that he feels like he has to tell me more about himself 😆 🤣

I have identified as straight my whole life. but as of lately mtf trans and black men have been what i long for. just haven’t had the chance to talk w any to experiment. if anyone here would like to talk to help open my eyes it’d be appreciated. it doesn’t have to be all sexual or even sexual at all. i’m 20yo. thanks

I’ve never posted before so I have no idea how this works or if anyone will see it but here it goes. I struggled with being gay for years it took time to personally accept it and come to terms but over the pandemic I knew I had to start telling people or my mental health would really start to suffer. It took a lot of strength but I finally told my brother and parents and they were very accepting I have told a few friends but that’s about it I’m still fearful about family and friends, they mean a lot to me and I don’t know how I would do if someone cut contact or was uncomfortable about me because of this. I’m slowly feeling ready to come out mostly out of time passing by and unfortunately also feeling trapped and miserable, I’m 24, but the unique situation is that I’m also a musician influencer who has done decently well online, I’m no one special but have built up a good community and network of people that have been very kind, supportive and helped me get some amazing opportunities and meet some great people. This style of music is more classic rock oriented so the following I mostly have is made up of a lot of middle aged to older people however there are a lot of people my age that enjoy what I do as well. I guess the big thing is I fear that I would lose my audience or make people mad if I did a whole coming out thing but also in my life I’ve shared other struggles I’ve been through and people have been inspired by that and found ways to be motivated by my story and it’s incredibly empowering to know that sharing your story can help someone feel like they can achieve a goal no matter what which I feel that this whole other side of me is. I don’t really want to go overboard with sharing my struggles or make my sexuality a big deal if that makes sense but understanding how difficult and mentally exhausting this road is, knowing I can help someone else in my situation, feels important as well and is part of my story. I know there’s the classic “you shouldn’t care what people think” mindset and I’ve had to live my life that way so I do feel hypocritical looking at it when it comes to this. I guess in my mind there’s sadly such a big negative stigma that kind of comes along with being gay that just doesn’t fit me. In terms of dating I have had an online situationship that started out great and really romantic and it was amazing to actually open up to someone but it now has turned into a horrible fling of this person disappearing for months and then messaging me whenever he feels a certain way. So romance, or if you can even call it dating, has been horrible but I guess what I’m asking is what should I do? How can I finally start to live a bit and feel free to meet other people until I’m ready to come out? I really don’t have any gay friends to meet or talk to so I have had no one to talk to about any of this. Also Whenever I do come out what if I get looked at more for my sexuality than the music or other challenges I’ve had to overcome? How could I cope with the absolute devastation I’d feel if family cut me off? I’d genuinely appreciate any help I’m just so tired of feeling trapped and just want to stop hiding and feeling lonely and miserable.

I like girls but recently I have been feeling attracted to boys, a specific one nonetheless. My family and parents often talk about drama and such and always belittle gay people. And I'm scared they will judge me. Usually they see all gay people as the same fruity and zesty people. But I'm not like that, and I dont want them to think I am. I just want to be able to like boys without being seen differently. Its not like they see a straight person and go, "Oh yeah, they're straight." but its the other way when they see a gay person. Also I'm sorry if saying gay person isn't the correct word I'm not sure if it is lgbtq or something. I hope someone can help me.

I don't know if this is the place to write this but it's pretty much the only place I can go to ask this question. Pretty much what the title says. I am a 16(m) who is gay (it feels so good to write that I've never done anything like that) I have never said a word to anyone but I feel like my family knows. My twin definitely knows I know she does it's just a twin thing but we've never said anything. My dad once told me he would always love me if I liked men and my mom said me if I was going with a boy or a girl to my homecoming. So I feel like they definitely know they just don't say anything. Maybe they are waiting for me to say it idk but then there's my older sister(27F) who has kind of always been withdrawn from the family, probably because of my older brother. She's super kind and helped my parents buy a house but until recently she always had a deep hate in her, due to my older brother. My older brother who we can call M(25m)

M had a different up bringing than me. My parents are immigrants from Mexico so they did not make a lot of money. This resulted in them living in a really bad neighborhood. I was too little to really remember living there but M and my older sister got to experience it at its worse. M is the main reason my parents worked so many jobs to get us out of there because M was getting involved with a gang. My parents did everything to help my brother but he never listened. We weren't anything close growing up. Talking occasionally or playing video games together but that's it. M was always going out with the gang. Then my parents shipped him off to live with family an hour away. All of it was for nothing tho because M ended up getting sent to prison when he was 19. For three years every Saturday my parents and siblings would get in the car and drive 3 hours to visit M.

M is out now and really changed his life around he can't live with us due to his parole officer but he visits three or more times a week. We talk a lot and him and my sister have really started to patch things up. He calls me everyday after school to talk to me about how it went. I really love M and look up to him so much. He's in grad school right now in a MFA program and really working hard. What I love most about him is his poetry. When I read his work I cannot help but cry. He talks about being an outsider, rejected from this word because of his looks and heritage. How sacred he was growing up and hid behind a gang to hide his weakness and feel safe. Like he was born wrong just for being a Mexican. I think if anyone is understand me better than anyone else in my family it is M. We are polar opposites but the exact same. I want M to be the first person I tell I am gay but Im scared because M has a massive fault he is really homophobic.

M has no issue using the f slur and has said he would beat his kid if they became gay. He tells me how in prison he dealt with people who made moves on him calling them sick in the head. It hurts so much when he talks like this I feel sick to my stomach. M is my idol and if I tell him I know he won't love me. He's always showing me the girls he meets on dating apps and tries giving me advice on how to pick up girls and I die inside every time I have to pretend to be interested. M is finally the brother I always wanted but I'll lose him if I come out. I hate it so much that I'm not straight so we can relate, I hate it so much. I just want my big brother but the only way I can keep him is if I lie. I don't know what to do, M can never love someone like me. If I say anything I'll just lose him again.

At 69 can a person who always assumed he was straight ‘Come Out’? - - - Is there an ‘Out’? - - - ((My vision is bad. This is Cu t & Paste from Word.)

I grew up in the 60’s-70’s in a small town in the Ozarks. I had a wonderful family, friends, small town neighbors. 5^(th) & 6^(th) grade was the old high school, built in 1909. 6 classrooms, <300 kids. So small we had no Principal.

If a girl got in trouble, she had to talk to a Secretary. If a boy got in trouble, he had to talk to Ray, the Custodian.

Rural Ozarks was Socially 10-20 years behind the coasts. The Sexual Revolution wouldn’t reach us for years. I grew up ‘Straight’ because there was no option.

Everything I know about ‘Gay’ is from porn. It must be as fake as real porn. I have always preferred to be around guys. Most were simply good friends. Some would give me feelings I didn’t understand. A few were extremely sexual.

I married a girl I truly loved, have 3 grown children, now divorced >10 years with no hope of reconciliation. I am retired, no longer important, lonely and Horney.

Everything I know about ‘Gay’ is from porn. It must be as fake as straight porn.

I don't even know what Gay Sex is. I learned nothing useful from Straight Porn.

Who would want me? On a good day I look 59.

I live in the Kansas City Metro. I am well acquainted with the 5-mile radius of I-291 and I- 70 (Chiefs Stadium) . Is there someplace I could go afternoons – early evening?

I never told my parents I am bi and because I am married to a cisgender woman they never had questions. I stayed away from coming out to them because for the longest time I was worried how they will react.

Several years ago I decided to be more open about it, told a few close friends, and started volunteering at local LGBTQIA+ organizations and non-profits. I went to my first Pride parade and loved it!! I felt more like myself.

I showed my parents the photos from Pride and the flags that I got. they either have no issues with it or don't know what it all means because they just said something along the lines of "oh that's very nice".

Now, my older sister has two kids and my parents are practically tearing their hair out wanting me to have kids, and I do want kids. I'm worried that if I tell them I'm bi, they will immediately start questioning if I actually want kids or if my marriage is in trouble (it absolutely is 💯 not in trouble. my wife is very supportive of me. I came out to her first year of college.) At my old job, my coworkers asked me if I am okay at home when I put a Pride flag bumper sticker on my car.

I want to come out as this is part of who I am and it feels confining to constantly hide part of myself.

Any advice, suggestions, or thoughts? Am I over thinking this?

In other post in this subreddit, I explained how I realized I was probably bi. Today, I'm gotten the courage to tell my parents about it and they've been super open-minded. I feel so good!!

Hello, over the last 5 years, I (24 amab) have been exploring and trying to understand my gender. I haven’t opened up to anyone and it is killing me. I have a friend that I have made over the last two years and I trust her to be accepting and to keep the information secret. I want to tell her but I am soo nervous that I may have clocked her wrong and keep worrying that maybe she isn’t understanding and won’t accept my gender. I came out to her as bi a month ago and she accepted that with no issues but I’m still so worried that gender may be too much. I live in an area where this info can be dangerous for me and my family. If someone can please give me advice on what I should do please please help!

So, I finally did it. I came out to my childhood friend over the phone, and I wanted to share how it went.

I started by telling her how much she means to me and that I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. After a deep breath, I told her, “I’m transgender.” There was a long pause on the other end, and she was surprised. She asked how I figured it out, so I explained that it wasn’t about “finding out” — I’ve known since childhood that the gender I was assigned at birth never felt right. It’s something I’ve always felt deep inside.

I also told her I’m pansexual. She didn’t quite get the difference between that and being bisexual, so I explained that it’s about being attracted to a person, not their gender. It’s not about male or female for me, it’s about who they are. I’m attracted to the person, not their gender.

She took it all in and was honestly a little shocked, but in the end, she said she was proud of me for being true to myself. She reassured me that I don’t have to explain myself to anyone unless I want to, and that made me feel so supported.

I’ve already started hormone replacement therapy, and I haven’t told my parents yet, but they’ll notice eventually. I just wanted my friend to know first. I’m feeling really good about it all now, and I’m so grateful to have her in my corner. 🌈

Hey there! I'm a 35 year old man looking for podcasts, audiobooks or other resources that delve into the journey of acknowledging and accepting one's true sexual orientation.

I've felt I was straight (or 'mostly straight') most of my life. A few years ago I came out to a few people and accepted my bisexuality. I began to embrace my attraction to men. Now I'm working through accepting myself as gay, and it's been difficult.

I'm looking for stories out there that mirror my own journey. I'm going to draw insight and inspiration.

If you have stories of your own you'd like to share please do. Thanks 😁.