First Name: Maci
Age: 19
Gender/Pronouns: Female (she/her)
Sexuality: Queer
Region/Area: Cleveland, OH
Race/Ethnicity: White
I accidentally came out by my mother finding a lgbt-related craft i did with my friends. She was accepting because my sister is also queer, but she questioned it asking if i was just trying to mirror my sister. It doesn’t get talked about much and they don’t really acknowledge my queer-ness. Basically it wasn’t bad, but not great.
First Name: Anonymous
Age: 20
Gender/Pronouns: Male
Sexuality: Queer
Region/Area: Cincinnati, OH
Race/Ethnicity: White
My coming out experience was a really weird, heterogeneous fluctuation from the point where I first told my sister I didn’t think I was straight, to slowly telling friends over the course of a couple years while I was in high school. Around the end of my senior year, I made a painting about queer identity to put in a school art show, but it was so subtle that no one really read that much into it. So I made a crappy Facebook post being like “I’m gay XD” and then kept on vibing. My mom was not friends with me on Facebook, but she found out when she tried to send me a friend request my freshman year of college, and I think that was the last major person I came out to! Obviously we are always coming out to new people in our lives all the time, but I think that was the major climax in my coming out story.
First Name: Anonymous
Age: 18
Gender/Pronouns: Female
Sexuality: Queer
Region/Area: Eastern Kentucky
Race/Ethnicity: White
I never had any sort of formal coming out. The first person I told was a friend from summer camp; I think I was in the 8th grade. We were texting and I was like “hey btw I’m not straight.” I identified as bisexual for a few years, and the only people who knew were my friends from camp. I started going to a new high school junior year and I didn’t hide my sexuality. My best friend told me a few weeks ago how she knew I wasn’t straight. I had downloaded tinder and had both guys and girls on the app. So when she found out it was a very casual setting, I didn’t even say anything. With most of my other friends, I would say/do something kinda gay and they would say “oh you’re gay?” I would say yes and that was it. Later on, I clarified to my friends that I think a better term for me is queer, but I wasn’t really comfortable with labels. I haven’t told my family, but they are definitely suspicious.
First Name: Anonymous
Age: 18
Gender/Pronouns: Female
Sexuality: Queer
Region/Area: Central Ohio
Race/Ethnicity: White
The first time I came out to anyone was January of my senior year to my best friend. I went to a Christian school, so I had a lot of internalized homophobia that took years to overcome. I’m out to a lot of my friends now, but I still am not and never will be out to my family.
First Name: Raychel
Age: 17
Gender/Pronouns: Nonbinary
Sexuality: Queer
Region/Area: Northern Kentucky
Race/Ethnicity: White
I came out for the first time when I was 15, two years after I realized I was queer. I came out originally as bisexual to one of my best friends at the time, although now I identify as queer. The next person I came out to was my Spanish teacher, and then my older cousin. Just after I moved from my school in northern KY to my current school in Bowling Green, KY, I came out to several of my home school friends via my private story on Instagram. I never really had to come out as queer at my current school; I just lived as out. I came out for the first time as nonbinary in January 2020 when I was 16, about a year after I started consciously questioning my gender identity. I was at my current school but I called my cousin (same as mentioned before). The next person I came out to, in March 2020 (before being sent home for Covid), was one of my closest friends that I made at my current school. The third person I came out to was another trans person from my current school, which was refreshing. I came out to all of my close friends during quarantine, either through text or Instagram private story, to let them know that I’d be using they/them pronouns from then on. All of my coming out experiences (both as queer and as nonbinary) were either positive or neutral, although many people have struggled to get my pronouns right. Most of them are slowly but surely improving. I am out as nonbinary at my current school and use they/them pronouns here, except for with my teachers as I’m afraid they might be transphobic and treat me unfairly. I have not yet come out to my parents or any immediate family members / extended relatives besides the older cousin mentioned. I expect to get negative responses from my parents, but I believe they will come around eventually.
First Name: Sofie
Age: 17
Gender/Pronouns: Female
Sexuality: Queer
Region/Area: Central Kentucky
Race/Ethnicity: White
I came out at home first, which I know isn’t super typical. I knew my parents would be super supportive as they had several gay friends that would visit when I was growing up and those people were always treated kindly. I was out at home for about a year before I started telling a couple of close friends. Eventually, I began talking to this girl at my school and we started dating. She was already pretty public about her sexuality, so I agreed to be public as well. I didn’t really have a formal coming out with other people at my school and it was more of just I was dating this other girl and people knew.
Note: Sofie was interviewed here.