FACES OF US

By Bekka Lipscomb

I, with everyone else in the world I suppose, sometimes imagine what life would be like if things had turned out differently. What would have happened if my mother hadn't pulled me out of public school to homeschool? What would have happened if she hadn't been diagnosed with a rare, terminal illness? What if...What if...A million questions always running through my mind all the time. The thing is, I know what would have happened.

Coming Out in West Morris, NJ

By Emily Witko

One Friday night during my junior year of college, I went to a party with some friends and never intended on doing more than drinking a little and dancing a lot. I was having an immense amount of fun and as the party went on it became apparent that something extraordinary was going to happen. That night, I went home with a woman.

It took me fifteen years to figure out who I was. It's been five years since then and sometimes I still feel like no one is listening.

Mitchell Dewar, Somerville, MA

Coming Out in Ringgold, GA

By Rob Nolen

My hometown is quaint and old-fashioned. It became a busy, successful little town after the Civil War, and many of the buildings built during and after Reconstruction are still standing today. Given these few details, it should go without saying that the people from back home have a values system that aligns quite well with the town’s history. In short: There was no doubt coming out in this environment would be interesting.

By Ilana Slomovitz

It was about midnight when my good friend from high school Brendan called me. I had just transferred to my new college, and we talked all the time. So I figured this was just him calling to say, “Hey, what up girl?” or “’Sup playa?!”

Coming Out in Phoenix, AZ

"Out Like a Lamb"

By Cody Van Winkle

I remember, the summer before 5th grade, feeling resigned. I knew I liked boys in the way I wasn’t supposed to like boys and I saw it as a great burden I’d be stuck with my whole life. Having just turned nine years old, I felt the way I imagine expectant parents feel when they’re told their fetus has Down Syndrome. I knew I was still having the baby, but I had to accept that it would be faced with life-long difficulties outside the norm. There was nothing I could do to change it.

Thanksgiving

By Marylou Davis

Brendan was coming home for the holiday and I was at the airport waiting for him. Usually I stay in my car but my friend Erin was picking up her son also so we decided to meet and wait together. Her son showed up first and we said our good byes and I continued my wait for Brendan.

Coming Out in Framingham, MA

By Ross Hurwitz

I went through all four years of high school with a girlfriend. I always knew something was different but whether it was denial or something else, I never even thought of coming out. The summer after I graduated I experimented with a friend and found that all my nicely built walls were starting to crack.

By Ben Fisher

My Mom and Dad visited two months after I began freshman year—I had yet another opportunity to tell them I was gay. A friend had told me there was no right time and no right place, and I was at least as ready as that advice allowed.

By David Sharrocks

I came out during my freshman year of high school. The first batch of people I told happened to be gay or bisexual.

By Jack Edwards

If there is anything about transition, especially in the early stages, the stages no one ever really talks about that needs to be understood, it’s how isolating it is. Transition is very much an internal process; there’s no external shift in the beginning, nothing outside of yourself to reference.

By Tim Gibbons

It was in preschool when I realized I was different from the other boys in my class but it wasn’t until senior year, about a year ago, when I would actually come out to my parents. Growing up in a very Christian, conservative household in the Midwest gives you that sort of apprehension that will keep you waiting. Throughout my childhood, I remember believing that I was defective and praying that God would take this sickness from me and I could be normal for a second. In retrospect, I realize that it is this mode of thinking that is damaging to many individuals in similar situations as myself.

By Steve Hosking

I could say that I had always known I was different - different in some way, but that would have been untrue. When you’re seven years old, open to the world, and eager to explore everything that captivates you…you don’t think of yourself as different...you just like a lot of things, the same things everyone else does. I didn’t see anything wrong with playing sports or playing dress-up, or even having crushes on both girls and boys. If I liked doing an activity, then I liked to do it. If I liked someone then I liked him or her! I never questioned it.

By Kerry Smith

I was about seven when I was watching a music video by Madonna.She had women in her limo giving her a lapdance.I asked my dad why she was doing that, he replied "She is bisexual." when I asked what that meant, he said "Shes a sick puppy."

Coming Out in Rockford, IL

By Tynan Sinks

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have much of a story. If I look back on what I might refer to as “hardships” in my life, I’m not sure coming out would even be one of them. I mean it was definitely hard, but all in all think I got lucky. Some people resent me because they feel I didn’t have it “hard enough,” like I haven’t paid my dues for the initiation into the gay club or something. We can be so hard on each other sometimes. Whatever, this is how it was for me.

By Jessie McAskill

When I began thinking about how I actually ended up “coming out” I realized that term just doesn’t apply to me. I feel more like I was playing hide and seek, waiting quietly for someone to find me in my dads closet while I played with his ties. Sure, I would crack the door open to let a little light in but just when my eyes started to adjust, I would slam it shut again and continue to wait with that nervous excited feeling that makes you feel like your breathing really loud.

By Tyler Toomey

I went through a period of questioning during the end of middle school. I may have always been questioning, but just never realized it until then. Being a child, I knew nothing about being gay, except that the bible said “homosexuality was a sin”.

By Adam Eisenhut

Coming out was like riding a roller coaster. I had eased myself into a relationship with my first boyfriend, not saying anything publicly and not even telling him too much of what was going on. Day by day I was clicking up that first peak. The night I was completely honest with him and we decided to make it “official,” I was in ecstasy. I could look over my entire life and understood so much more about myself. I was so overcome with joy and relief by having admitted to even just one person that I was gay that my body shook with no other outlet for the emotion.
And then the release.

Coming Out in North Baldwin, NY

Six Colors on a Chain
by MJ Halberstadt

When I was eight, I loved The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, so when I woke up one morning and stumbled upon a necklace with six colored rings that looked just like the medallions Link collects during his adventures in Hyrule, I knew I had to wear it. I put on the necklace and went into the Toy Room to play Nintendo.

When my father looked into the room, he was shocked to see his son wearing a rainbow choker necklace. He immediately burst into my sister Melissa’s room.

“You need to get your necklace off your little brother’s neck.”

National Coming Out day is October 11th.

In the days surrounding October 11th Faces of Us will open up to allow people to share their own personal stories about coming out. In the following days, Faces of Us will become a forum for stories from LGBT people, friends, and family who have stories about coming out, or about somebody coming out to them.

Have a story? Tell it here!

If you'd like to tell your coming out story, submit 300-500 words to thefacesofus@gmail.com . Please include a photo of yourself holding up a sign promoting equality, an end to homophobia, or a positive message about LGBT people. Be sure to include your name, city, and state! Stories can be happy, funny, sad, or a whole host of other feelings. Every person's experience is unique!