THEGAYUK

Tag: Coming Out

Read the latest news and advice on Coming Out as LGBT+.

  • POWWOW | 7 real responses to coming out as gay

    POWWOW | 7 real responses to coming out as gay

    We asked our readers and writers “Who was the first person you came out to and what was the response?” Their responses may bring heart into your life.

    what are typical coming out as gay responses in the UK
    ©-Ruslan117-Depositphotos

     

    FINE… but I’m not…

    DANIEL –

    I told my best mate that I’m gay when I was 15. He said, “that’s fine, but I’m not” and that was the end of the discussion. We’re still great mates today. The best reaction I had to coming out was from a friend who shrugged her shoulders and said, “and…?” as if it was no big deal and she couldn’t care less. Really it shouldn’t be a big deal and we shouldn’t need to come out. Perhaps one day people won’t need to.

     

    Out of my first day of a new job

    ANDY

    I told the woman I was working with on my first day at a new job. It was a fresh start and she had no preconceptions about me so it was easier to tell a stranger. I was 21 so kinda old to be coming out really. She wasn’t bothered so it was nice to be finally open about how I had been feeling for years.

     

    My girlfriend did not take it well..

    SEBASTIAN

    My girlfriend – she destroyed her own bathroom.

     

    Mother’s always know part 1

    GLEN

    I told my mum when I was 17 years old. Her response was , “I’m your Mother and I already know you are gay, any decent Mother would know her child”.

     

    Mother’s always know part 2…

    DARREN

    My mum asked me. “Are you gay?” when I was 19. But I think most mothers already know.

     

    I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me.

    GRAHAM

    I guess the first person was myself. It took a while for me to be comfortable with that. The first people I then told was in the middle of an acting class whilst training at Drama School. The lesson was about getting your message across to an audience and the lecture was making people stand up and tell everyone something. He picked on me and so I stood up and came out with not too much thought about it. The room went quiet with little eye contact and I thought ‘what the hell have I just done’, but afterwards everyone kept coming up to say well done and that they were all proud of me. My sexuality wasn’t an issue for any of them and I’d never felt so free to be myself…

     

    See Mothers do know…

    MICHELLE

    Trust me, mothers know, it’s the torture of waiting for your child to tell you that’s di cult, watching all that angst is heartbreaking.

  • Fox News anchor comes out as gay

    A Fox News anchorman has come out as gay.

    Embed from Getty Images

    Fox frontman Shep Smith has come out as gay in an interview with Huffington Post. The 52-year-old, who has worked for the news network since it went on the air 20 years ago said that the network was a “very warm and loving and comfortable place.”

    Embed from Getty Images

    He was previously married to a woman but has also appeared in Out.com’s Power list.  He also attended the 19th Annual National Lesbian And Gay Journalists Association New York Benefit in 2014.

     

     

  • Coming Out

    Share your story of coming out.

    So we want to share experiences of coming out, the good, the bad and the ugly and archive them on this page. By doing this we’re hoping that those who can’t or have yet to make the decision to come out can read, learn and find hope in our stories.

    To read all our content on Coming Out, click here.

    Coming out is a deeply personal experience. Sometimes filled with joy, sometimes the process is completely nerve-wracking. By sharing these stories we give a voice to the LGBT+ community’s share experience on the journey to living more truthfully.

    Use the comments below to let us know

    and your story could be featured on this site.

  • Editor’s Letter | My Coming Out

    I was 20 and at university. It was the week before Christmas and I got dumped. We’d been dating for a year and a half. He was my first love and we had just broken up. It had been a difficult, secretive and tumultuous relationship. I was still fiercely in denial about my sexuality and he was basically a big gay fog horn. Looking back, I was quite jealous of that.

    My insistence that our relationship remained in the closet along with me, would eventually tear us apart. I was so afraid of coming out. Sitting in my parents’ living room, huddled in the corner, I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep, I was the walking dead. It’s not quite the image you have for your coming out moment, but as my Mum looked at me, with a worried look, my heart began to beat wildly, I knew this would be the moment. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Ben* has gone,” I choked.

    Not getting it, she replied, “That’s okay, he’ll be back after the holidays…” “No, he’s really gone,” and with that the floodgates opened. Puzzled she looked at me, and asked, “Is there something you need to tell me?” Through sodden eyes, a clammed up throat, a raging headpounding, I told her that he had been my boyfriend. She sat quietly and listened. She listened as I told her about our relationship. She listened as I blamed myself for this and that. She listened as I wailed that I would never love again. She listened as I started to make coherent sense again.

    I looked up. Wondering what the response would be… And then, thoughtfully, she started to sing. “You’ve got to wash that man right out of your hair…” In that moment, my darkest moment (so dramatic) she had made everything okay. We laughed, (well I was doing that blubbery laughing thing). She knew – I mean she had known from the age of three, but telling her when I felt I couldn’t tell anyone was big, one of the most important moments of my life. It was the moment that I could start living more truthfully.

    *Name changed

    Have you got a coming out story, share your story on our Coming Out archive

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • Reader’s Tips For Coming Out

    It’s National Coming Out Day so we asked you to give us your top tips for going through what is often a life changing event in a person’s life.

    I am not gay

    1) Don’t apologise.

    2) Only come out if it is what you want to do. If you feel pressured    into coming out, remember that it has to be your decision. It is a big decision to make in your life and the most important thing is that you feel comfortable with what you are doing.

    3) Do it the way you most feel comfortable! I told my Dad by letter, but my friends mainly face to face… it just got easier the more I did it.

    4) Treat it like a band-aid and just tear it off. Quick and almost painless. Just tell them, quickly, confidently and get it over with.

    5) Don’t approach the situation like you’re about to announce you’re terminally ill. Body language and the tone of your voice will play a massive role in how people react to what you’re saying.

    6) If you don’t get the reaction you expect, don’t be put off. You will get some negative reactions, but that is their problem not yours. The amount of positive reactions will far outweigh the negative ones.

    7) Speaking to a helpline, like Switchboard – first, if you’re not sure what to say. Talking with a counsellor or helpline can help you find the words you need to describe what you’re feeling.

    8) If you’re not sure how to bring it up, casually talk about a celebrity’s recent coming out like Tom Daley or Charlie King and gauge the reaction before going any further.

    9) It’s not an all or nothing deal. You don’t HAVE to tell everyone all at once. Start off with one person and let it grow organically from there.

    10) There is no right or wrong way to come out. It should be a tailor-made experience, as individual as you are.

  • Coming Out On Film

    Coming Out On Film

    It’s National Coming Out Day and we have found a couple of new films to celebrate.

    (c) The G-Word
    (c) The G-Word

     

    The first, The G-Word, is a two and a half minute short comedy looking at the difficulty there can be in coming-out to the parents and unexpected consequences that can arise from it. Written and performed by Carl Loughlin, this is certainly a short that has potential to be made into a running web series.

    The second feature film, Coming Out by a young NYC film maker Alden Peters, documents his own coming-out experiences as he captures the full conversations with friends, family and society. This often private moment in a person’s life is laid bare to show the various reactions from the painfully awkward to the hilariously honest. Out now on DVD and VOD.

  • The first member of the extended British Royal Family comes out as gay

    The first member of the extended British Royal Family comes out as gay

    The first member of the extended Royal Family has come out as gay and in a relationship.

     

    The Queen’s cousin, Lord Ivar Mountbatten, 53, (pictured on the right) has revealed that he is gay and in a relationship with his boyfriend James Coyle (not in picture), who is an air steward.

    He is the first member of the extended Royal Family to have come out as openly gay. He is the great-great-great- grandson of Queen Victoria.

     

    Speaking to the Mail On Sunday he said,

    “Now everyone in our family knows and could not be more supportive. Neither of us wanted to have relationships which were transitory; the stereotypical view of gay relationships is that they are too fleeting, too frequent”.

    Lord Mountbatten, who had been previously married to a woman, although they separated in 2010, hasn’t ruled out marrying his partner, James, saying,

    “If you’d raised that six months or even two weeks ago, I’d have said ‘No way’. But now it’s out there [he means the fact he’s gay], anything is possible”

    Speaking about how his three daughters felt about him and his partner, Lord Mountbatten said,

    “In an ideal world, I know the girls would like their mother and father still to be together, but they love their 21st Century family that we have built too. Their father has a boyfriend. It’s that complicated and that simple, but finding James means I will not have to lie to anyone or grow old on my own.”

  • Ollie Locke comes out as gay

    Ollie Locke comes out as gay

    Made In Chelsea and former Celebrity Big Brother star Ollie Locke has come out as gay.

    Ollie Locke
    CREDIT: Channel 5

     

    Ollie Locke, 29, who told housemates during his time in Celebrity Big Brother 2014 that he was bisexual, but had not slept with any men has come out as gay in an interview with The Sun.

    The Made In Chelsea heart-throb confirmed the news after splitting with his girlfriend, Catherine Louise Radford.

    Speaking with The Sun, he said he was now ready for his first relationship with a man, after he broke up with his ex-girlfriend.

     

    ALSO READ: Bobby Norris breaks down talking about the death of his dog, after it was mauled to death by a bigger dog.

     

    He told the newspaper that he’d prefer an older man in his late thirties to early 40s – and he should be a lawyer.

    In his interview he said,

    “It’s the first time the viewers have seen me as gay instead of bi,

    “I do say the words ‘I am a gay man’

    “I lived with a woman last year when I was off camera and we had two dogs together,

    “Then when we broke up in December, I thought, ‘That’s it now, I think I’m now gay’.”

     

  • US singer Ryan Beatty comes out as gay

    US singer Ryan Beatty comes out as gay

    American singer Ryan Beatty has come out as a “raging homosexual”.

    (C) Ryan Beatty / Instagram

     

    The popular 20-year-old singer came out in an instagram post saying,

    “Proud to be a raging homosexual. it’s taken 20 years of suffocating in the closet for me to become comfortable enough to say it, but now I can finally breathe. i did it!”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BHN_DJwhEWx/?taken-by=ryanbeatty&hl=en

    https://twitter.com/TheRyanBeatty/status/747955395465904128

     

    The singer who has amassed a huge social following, with 305,000 followers on Instagram and nearly 400,000 on twitter, many of whom praised and congratulated him on his decision to make his sexuality public knowledge.

    He took a moment to thank his supporters for their kind words and said,

    https://twitter.com/TheRyanBeatty/status/747970296771010560

    https://twitter.com/TheRyanBeatty/status/747970895503728640

  • Cabinet Minister comes out for Pride 2016

    Justine Greening has announced that she is in a same-sex relationship.

    The UK Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening has opened up about her sexuality, after announcing on Twitter that she is in a “happy same-sex relationship”.

    The MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields remarked that she had “… campaigned for Stronger In but sometimes you’re better off out!”

    She was referring to the UK’s European Union referendum which saw the UK’s electorate vote to Leave the EU, 52 per cent to 48 per cent.

    Her revelation was met with congratulations from many of her colleagues in the Conservatives.

    Former London Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith wished Greening well, Crispin Blunt, Chloe Smith and Guy Opperman were just a few of Tory MPs who wished Greening well.

    Nicky Morgan, the Minister for Women and Equal Opportunity said she was delighted for the couple.

    The UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced that he is to resign after failing to secure a Remain vote in the EU Referendum tweeted his congratulations saying her announcement was “great news”.

    Justin Greening later said that she was, “amazed and overwhelmed” by the support and that she really “appreciated” the messages.

     

  • Christian Rock Singer Trey Pearson Comes Out As Gay

    Christian Rock Singer Trey Pearson Comes Out As Gay

    Christian Rock singer Trey Pearson has come out as gay in a heartfelt letter to his fans.

    CREDIT: ҚЯĀŽΨÇÉV13 / Under CC License from Wikipedia

    CREDIT: ҚЯĀŽΨÇÉV13 / Under CC License from Wikipedia

    The lead singer of a Christian rock group, Everyday Sunday has come out as gay. Speaking directly to his fans in a heartfelt letter, Trey Pearson revealed that coming out has lifted a weight and that he’s never felt such freedom.

    “I never wanted to be gay. I was scared of what God would think and what all of these people I loved would think about me,

    “But if this honesty with myself about who I am, and who I was made by God to be, doesn’t constitute as the peace that passes all understanding, then I don’t know what does. It is like this weight I have been carrying my whole life has been lifted from me, and I have never felt such freedom.”

    He said that he hoped his fans “would hear his heart” and that he would still be loved. His band has had considerable successful since their first album released in 2009.

    “I hope people will hear my heart, and that I will still be loved. I’m still the same guy, with the same heart, who wants to love God and love people with everything I have.”

     

    ALSO READ: Celebrities who have said they’re a little bit gay

     

     

    He told The Washington Post that he hoped the new album that he is due to release this autumn won’t be affected by revealing his sexuality.