Coming Out Journey Quotes

Nowadays, if somebody in America is feeling alone and wants to find a coming out story, they just search 'coming out,' and they'll find millions of first-person examples of people telling their story.

Back in the day, coming out was something very personal. You began by acknowledging the truth, first to yourself, then to close family and friends. Those of us more in the public spotlight, though, also had to 'come out' to the press.

I realize it's a cliche, almost, that coming out of the closet is a very healthy and empowering thing to do, but for me, it really has been a truly wonderful thing.

Anyone in public life who comes out, comes out primarily for themselves, and their life is immediately improved. That's what happened to me.

I learned that coming out was crucial to self-esteem.

I came out when I was 17 - coming out in middle or high school is one of the most difficult things that anyone could experience. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies.

I came out to myself when I was about 15 or 16, and to my parents when I was 18. When you come out to your parents, that's when it's properly official.

Coming out of the closet doesn't always mean liberation.

For some, the fear of coming out is so great, they can continue to live an inauthentic life. But at a certain point, the pain becomes too much to bear. For me, having one more day pass by where I wasn't living my true self seemed like such a wasted opportunity, such a wasted life.

The process of coming out is normally very disappointing. It's not that people react badly to it - they really don't care.

Not everybody comes out when they're in their twenties, you know?

I watched pretty much every coming out video on YouTube that has ever been posted; I watched it in between 14 and a half and 15. Those coming out videos, and those people on YouTube, those brave, brave, brave people on YouTube, without them, I don't know where I'd be.

Someone coming out as gay shouldn't be newsworthy; it shouldn't be warranting a magazine cover or anything like that, which I had as my story for coming out.

Honestly, there was a time after I came out that I really did not think I would be working again.

I'm not even sure I want to use the term 'coming out.'

Any therapist will tell you that when you're ready, you will come out. To be outed means you weren't ready.

What's it like to figure out you're gay and then begin the process of coming out? Well, for most of my life, I felt doomed. I could imagine no path that would allow me to realize my authentic self. I felt the need to lie, even to myself, insisting: I am straight.

Coming out, for me, was slightly painful. It was a relief, but it was also painful.

When I came out when I was 18, and I graduated from high school, and I felt like that was the time to officially say it, I surprised zero people in my family.

I didn't come out for 21 years because I thought that everything I wanted to do with my life - have a family, get a great job, make a change in this world - that the moment I came out, that I would not be able to do any of those things.

I love my parents. Coming out to them was sort of coming out to myself. I educated them, and I wanted our relationship to keep growing. I wanted them to be a part of my life still. I wanted to be able to share with them what I was going through.

I will never forget what it was like coming out and having nobody to look up toward.

When I came out, I thought coming out meant giving up a marriage and a family. That was, to me, the most difficult part of the coming-out process.

It takes a lot of guts to come out to your friends and family. For most gay people, coming out is the most traumatic experience in their life because of the worry about the backlash: 'What's going to happen? Are my parents going to accept me? Are my friends going to accept me? Are my sisters and brothers going to accept me?'

I came out to my dad in Christmas of '94.