How old were you..?

[pornoboy]

​

 

[LeicsDom]

23

 

[Kahaih]

Never had any sort of 'coming out talk' with anyone.

My parents had always had gay friends, and knew about me before I did. LOL

I've had boyfriends for as far back as I can remember.

My step grandmother, a peachy sort of woman, was the only person who was ever freaked out by it. Took her years to get over it. But she did.

 

[unloadonme]

I can't point to a date or an age and say that that's when I came out. I sleep with men rather than women and I've never made a secret of that. On the other hand, I don't walk around with my gay card pinned to my lapel. I had one aunt who asked me outright (and was fine with the answer), but everyone else close to me just knows.

 

[rareboy]

I never made up placards or engraved announcements.

I just made it pretty apparent after the age of 22 that I was a homosexual.

 

[me203]

My parents had always had gay friends, and knew about me before I did.

It's interesting how often I hear stories about parents who knew long before the child.

 

[me203]

40-something. But I was over 40 when I finally accepted I'm gay, and maybe no younger than low 30s when I first admitted I could have sex with another man--not that the opportunity has ever come.

I haven't told very many people. Oddly, I get the impression here and there that I'm perceived straight--although I have no idea whether that is what people believe, or what they think they should believe unless informed otherwise.

 

[LeicsDom]

It's interesting how often I hear stories about parents who knew long before the child.

When I told my mother she said 'Oh I have known since you were 14'
I was 23 at the time!

 

[TickTockMan]

First time I was asked I was 19. Never hid it though so people may have knew before.

 

[backagain]

I was 28. I had told one of my sisters.
It took me awhile, but by the time I was 34 I came out to the rest of my immediate family(Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters) I am 1 of 9 siblings.
I am 65, it was a very different society that I grew up in.
The 1980's was not a pleasant decade for gay people at least for me. Seeing gay peers dying off.

 

[PrinceCory]

Not sure I could say that I have ever come out to anyone and I'm in the late 60's. I've messed around (naked) with less than a handful of guys starting around 40.

 

[Alistair]

When people start coming out as straight I’ll come out as gay.

I’ve never been worried about coming out to anyone. The people that need to know know and the people that don’t need to know don’t. I’ve never made a grand announcement.

 

[Peloso]

19. I was outed by my straight roommate because I was kicking him out of my apartment so my boyfriend could move in. He found out because he overheard me talking to him on the phone.

 

[Vannie]

Last week at 97

 

[Kahaih]

Last week at 97

Wow, that's great. But they're not talking about that quarter you swallowed back in 1934.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The table shows that a significant percentage of gays are closeted, and that it hasn't moved appreciably across the generations with the changing "acceptance' of society. And that presumes the data is both accurate and representative of reality.

What the language of gays fails to recognize is that a significant percentage of the population doesn't discuss sex, or even very private matters.

So, unless you're actively dating, being a single male in society is simply being a single male.

The terminology "closeted" is intentionally shaming. It relegates those who are not vocal about their same-sex attraction as hiding it, which really isn't the same as being a private person.

If straight people are not walkling around discussing publicly their sexuality and habits, then gays aren't exactly hiding when doing the same.

And yes, if you're dating or becoming a couple, then to some degree you've "come out" to society, but in a very real manner, lots of gay couples must surely still be not public at work or in certain other settings.

The whole language of sexual expression needs rethinking. We are part of the problem.

 

[Vannie]

Wow, that's great. But they're not talking about that quarter you swallowed back in 1934.

Get off my lawn!

 

[me203]

Last week at 97

I'm sure none of us would have guessed you were 97!

But then all of us keep our distance around you for fear that you recently had a stuffed cabbage feast...