Getting out of the closet

When is it appropriate to talk about your sexual orientation and gender identification? A difficult question, one that I struggled with a bit a few years back when I had just admitted to myself that I was bisexual, yet I was living in a heteronormative relationship and there were almost no one that knew that about me.

My bisexuality is an important part of me, and something that I want people around me to know about me. When people I spent time with didn't know about that I felt a bit like I walked around with a secret, a secret that grew bigger and bigger by the day. Something that brought a feeling of distance in many relationships.

Life took a turn and I found myself sitting in a sofa on national TV (14min, Swedish) talking about my sexual orientation, and suddenly it was difficult to be more out than that (well, being in a four page interview (Swedish) in Sweden's largest newspaper did also help), but others might not have that luxury. That's one of the reasons of the National Coming Out Day this saturday. The coming out day is a great opportunity to tell people that you don't normally talk about your sexual identity or gender identity who you are. If you are a Facebook user you can use your status message to tell the world that you are gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgendered, a straight ally or anything else that you would like the world to know about. Welcome out of the closet, whoever you are.

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