One Year Later

A year ago I made one of the best decisions of my life — to come out as bisexual. Since then, I’ve been fired from my job, forced out of my school, and kicked out of my church; but at no point during the past year have I ever regretted coming out. I recognize that not everyone is in a place (either geographically or emotionally) where they are able to come out, but for those who are, I can promise you it gets better. You may lose your job, your school, your church, or all three, but what you gain is an identity rooted in truth, and a community that will love and care for you.

One of my favorite stories about coming out is from StoryCorps’s OutLoud series. In “Don’t Sneak”, Patrick Haggerty recalls a time in high school that he hid from his father after covering his face in glitter for a school assembly. Afterwards, his dad confronted him about it:

Now, I’m gonna tell you something today, and you might not know what to think of it now, but you’re gonna remember when you’re a full-grown man: Don’t sneak. Because if you sneak, like you did today, it means you think you’re doing the wrong thing. And if you run around spending your whole life thinking that you’re doing the wrong thing, then you’ll ruin your immortal soul.

I came out because I can always find another job, another school, and another church - but God has only given me one soul, and I refuse to let it be damaged because I am too afraid of what other people will think.

Last year, I published “My Story” on National Coming Out Day - a day created to remind the LGBTQ community that coming out was the most basic form of activism in the fight for equality.