Coming Out....

Ok, so I said I'd post something happy. And for the most part... this is it.
For ease of explanation, I'm gonna split this up into the various members of my family. For each has their own story.

I struggled to come to terms with my sexuality for years, and to this day I'm still not sure if I've fully accepted it myself.
I guess I've known I was 'different' since my early high school days. The biggest sign for me was in my Year 7 Health class when our teacher asked us to write about our feelings towards the opposite sex at various stages in our lives ie. Early Primary School, late Primary School and what was the present day.
For me, things hadn't changed... Girls had always made great friends.
For everyone else, their feelings evolved from 'Girls had cooties' to 'Girls are the best thing since sliced bread'.

I was 21 when I came out to my family...

Mum:
Coming Out to my Mum was interesting to say the least.
I'd sent my sister an email shortly after my Dad's birthday lunch which I had attended with my boyfriend at the time (He was introduced as a friend, and was there because he insisted on driving me cause I had no other means to get home at the time)
Anyway, I told my sister that I needed to tell her something in person. In turn, she told Mum that she thought I was about to come out and made Mum swear not to mention this to me.
But Mum being Mum has never really been one to live up to such promises.
So the next day when I caught up with Mum briefly, she asked me straight out what I wanted to tell my sister.
Needless to say, this threw me. I wasn't ready to have this conversation with her... So I lied.
Mum saw right this, sat me down and promptly told me what she thought it was that I wanted to say.
Apparently, Mum's known I was gay since I was 11... We both had a bit of a laugh at this and I told her she was a bitch for not letting me in on the secret sooner. She hugged me and asked me when my boyfriend was coming round for lunch next.
- Yup, my Mum told ME I was gay... clearly she missed the memo on letting one's children come out to them!

My Older Sister:
After coming out to Mum, it became quite clear that my sister was already well aware I was gay. So rather than waiting until the next time I was in Melbourne to see her, I called her.
Funniest conversation ever... After pointing out all the things I'd done at Dad's birthday that friends don't do (for example, stealing food from his plate) she layed down the law to me. She was fine with me being gay just as long as I did 2 things.
1. I had to take her gay clubbing with me one night... Still haven't done that (more because I don't really go gay clubbing)
2. Don't EVER hit on her boyfriend - The smart arse in me couldn't resist telling her that she had nothing to worry about because I could find guys MUCH hotter than him any day with a minimum of effort.

My Younger Brother:
Now this one was strange... For years my younger brother's favourite name for me was 'Fagot' (probably why I hate the word so much these days) so I was always a little worried about how I was going to break the news to him.
Turns out I didn't have to... A few months before, I had hooked up with a mate of mine. Who in turn went to school with another friend of mine's little sister (Andrew and her had a thing going for a while).
Anyway, J had told K every little detail about me (and I mean EVERY detail) and K promptly told my borther.
I had no idea that he knew I was gay, guess I should've known from the lack of being called a fagot!
Eventually I found out he knew, I still had no idea how to tell him though... But after a few weeks of sibling fights where you could see he was doing his best not to drop the 'f' word I finally told him it was OK for him to say it.
I'm still not entirely sure how he feels about me being gay, but it's led to some fairly amusing conversations over the years and if he ever hears someone bad mouthing me he's the first to offer to punch them out for me.

Dad:
The only bad reaction I got, and I think this was more due to timing than anything.
See, my best mate at the time (K's older brother) came out to his Dad the day that Mum and I had our conversation about me.
This caused some confusion, because everyone just assumed that the two of us had been hooking up for the last few months (I'd all but lived at his place) - In reality, nothing had happened between us. Not even so much as a kiss.
Anyway, Dad found out when K was drunk in the local pub one night where she put her arms around my Dad and her Dad and loudly asked 'So... How does it feel to have your oldest sons turn out to be fags?'
I've never really shared a close relationship with my Dad, so I can't say I was at all surprised by his reaction. It was his fault I was gay, he must not have dragged me along to enough games of footy in my youth. So his idea to remedy this was to send me to a Shrink.
My idea to remedy this was to cease all contact with him for 6 months -This hit him hard, but made him realise that it wasn't anyone's fault and that I didn't need to be fixed.
Years later, he has come to understand the 'gays' after watching Brokeback Mountain. He's even gone to Pride March! Who would've thought...

So that's my story... so much for Coming Out... I was robbed of the opportunity to tell any of my immediate family I was gay! Lame...
But they love me still, and thats all that really matters I suppose :)