What I can say is that I entirely echo Colton's words that "acting 24 hours a day is exhausting". What I regret is the time I spent living in fear of being discovered, disowned and discarded. What I've found is that most people in my life are embracing me and even celebrating my courage.
I've yet to meet a member of the LGBTQ community that regrets coming out. Regret is far often more attached to HOW it happened than being out in the open. Not everyone is as lucky as me. They don't get to choose when and how they come out. Countless youth are outed by peers or parents far before they're ready for different reasons. Many are outed within the faith community when coming out to someone in trust and "did you hear about?" becomes a "prayer request."
For me, it's deep and personal. I needed to come to terms with myself and grieve the ways I had acted and hurt myself and others while hiding from the truth. I needed to face the friends that I had shoved out of my life and force myself to ask hard questions.
I needed to choose what was more important to me--what I know about myself or what others expected of a Christian. Talking with my mom, we both laughed at the idea that I ever tried to NOT be bisexual. The first person I was ever in love with was my next door neighbour Melissa.
We were about 8-ish and spent every waking moment of the summer together. It was the kind of puppy love that parents encourage between a boy and a girl as "cute" and "normal"--but it wasn't until I was a grown up looking back that I saw it for what it was.
Praise the Lord my mother never shamed me for that relationship or a few I had in my teens. In our family, who you love had more to do with how they treat you and others than their gender, race or religion.
Write in the comments what you think the etiquette is behind outing someone else.
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