Beautiful, Heartbreaking, and Hopeful Coming Out Stories

Happy Pride!

Every June, we celebrate being proud of who we are just a little but louder than we do in the other 11 months of the year. We’ll be sharing what Pride means to us over on Instagram all month long, but we wanted to share more of your coming out stories to get started here on the blog.

As always, we can’t thank you enough for being brave and vulnerable enough to submit your stories. They give others hope and make the world feel a little smaller, which is always so comforting. Take a look below to see what we mean…

“I was 22 in 1973. Five years after Stonewall. Even though it was still in the books as a mental illness and many aspects of being gay publicly were against the law, I never felt so free. I have marched, rioted, cried over lost friends from illness and been extremely proud of my tribe and logical family. Many stories still to tell.” -Michael

“I came out to my best friend first when I was 21, and then over the few weeks after, to friends and family, resulting in the loss of some relationships. I had mixed reactions, from, “we love you so much and support you” to “you need to figure out what happened to you as a child and get past this.” The toughest thing is that coming out never stops, as anytime you meet a new person, eventually if you spend enough time with them, you’ll have to come out once more, and you never know what someone’s reaction will be. I take the good with the bad and I love myself, being true to who I am.” -Brad

“I was 17 and it was my junior year of high school. My mom and I were not getting along very well that year for some God awful reason, so one day I about had it and I wrote a note to her while she was showering, left it on her bed, and took off to my best friend’s house with an overnight bag, just in case. I was so scared because I grew up Catholic so I KNEW what to expect. But after about an hour she finally called and said, “Do you think that’s gonna stop you from being my son?” I burst into tears as I felt that huge weight come off my shoulders finally.” -Joel

“The first time I came out was to my best friend the first day of our senior year of high school. It had taken me a while to get comfortable using the word “gay” out loud but I still couldn’t do it, so I wrote her a letter about my feelings and my truth and watched her read it for the five most agonizing minute of my life. She’s not a touchy-feely kind of person, but she immediately wrapped me in a huge hug and I immediately knew that t was all going to be okay.” -Ian

“First I told my best friends years before my family. Then, when I had a serious “dude friend”, I basically brought my boyfriend around to hang out with me and the fan a lot and let them figure it out and ultimately ask me about it. It worked out really well, since I knew it was a really uncomfortable thing for my mom (in short, her dad cheated on my grandmother with a dude = sore subject). I was too afraid of bringing it up before she was ready, but once she became comfortable with and liked Blake, she brought it up all on her own and it worked out perfectly and it’s been great ever since!” -Clark

“I came out to my friends in middle school, my parents in high school/college, and the public on social media the same day same-sex marriage became legal across the nation. Coming out to each group varied in difficulty but I was fortunate enough to feel love and support from each person I told. Coming from a small town and conservative family I felt somewhat afraid and ashamed to identify as gay. Today at the age of 22, I couldn’t be happier and prouder to be gay.” -Jake

“I was 24. I waited until I felt I was strong enough on my own, steady job, financially stable. I was expecting it to happen but one night I just knew it was the right time. It took me two hours to finally say the words to my best friend. We sat together hand in hand, crying, hugging. It was the biggest exhale I had ever felt in my life. I was lucky. I came out to so much love and support all around.” -Robert

“I didn’t ‘come out’ in the traditional way, since I never liked how de-normalizing a huge coming out thing is. No offense to everyone who thinks that’s the right way for them, but for me, it’s wasn’t. So when I decided I wanted people to know, I started to just lead the conversation with my friends on LGBT topics whenever I met them and slowly started to expose my sexuality through this. It was the easiest and best way for me to just don’t come out but still be open about my sexuality.” -Nico

“I told my best friend and her response was, “Oh that’s wall? I thought you were going to say you had a crush on me!” We’re still best friends to this day!” -Ben

“I was 16 at the time. I was bullied a lot in high school because of my looks, no one knew I was gay. It got to the point where I tried taking my own life. I sat down with some close friends and told them I was gay. They suggested that I tell my parents everything and I did just that and my mom said she knew I was gonna be gay from when I was five years old. It’s been nothing but love since.” -Anonymous