Coming out

This week's question on OutLateButGreat has to do with coming out:

1. Were there people who accepted you who you "knew" wouldn't? Why do you think that was so?
2. Were there people who didn't accept you who you thought would have no problem? Why do you think THAT was so.
3. Were women or men more accepting, or was it roughly the same mix?

I'm afraid I don't have much to add to this discussion. I am largely still in the closet. I've come out to some people on YouTube and on bigender.net, as well as whoever has read this blog (going by the traffic counts, that's not many *smiles*), and a few people on Second Life know that I'm bigender. But as far as coming out to the people around me offline, it hasn't happened.

I come from a small family - just my parents, my brother, and me. Everyone in my family has very definite ideas about how things should be, with varying degrees of being okay with it when something doesn't fit their ideals. I've always been the black sheep, the one who went against Mom and Dad's expectations. I've caused them enough trouble (and brought enough trouble on myself because of it) and I don't want to do it again unless there's a really solid reason.

My son has been the trickiest. I've been teaching him bit by bit about the gender spectrum by talking about some of the people I follow on YouTube.  He understands what MTF and FTM mean, what an androgyne is, what the difference is between gender and sex (I used the analogy of computer hardware being physical sex and operating systems being gender - not perfect, but he understands it because he's into computers. I should try SydneyTinker's pencil example instead, much more accurate). So he understands that androgyny and the gender spectrum are topics of interest to me. But I haven't told him the real reason why. Again, I haven't felt like there's been a reason to do so. And as he approaches the point in his life when he'll be figuring out his own sexuality, he'll have enough to work through without me adding my stuff to the mix.

So-o-o...in the closet I remain. It really doesn't interfere with my life. I don't feel like I'm hiding anything from my family. I'm just me, with my long hippy skirts and my Birks and my video games and my no makeup and my backpack instead of a purse. My family lets me be myself, and I really couldn't ask for more than that.

One of these days, I'll come out of my shell and post a vlog entry. I've always been a better writer than speaker, but I'm finally getting it that I don't have to be perfectly articulate to be a good vlogger. My YouTube channel is StarchildMagic (surprise surprise! haha). Until then, keep in touch here!