You didn't tell them about santorum. :-/

Hey new college students! All but the last four paragraphs apply equally well if you doubt the existence of God.

C'mon, admit it: You're an athiest!

Congratulations on being in Seattle, a city with one of the highest concentrations of people who doubt claims made about talking vegetation, Bronze Age creation mythology, or that the term "Senator Santorum" indicates anything other than that, apparently, lube and fecal matter are now considered qualified to hold federal office.

The best advice I got about coming out:

First, be comfortable with it yourself! If you're confident and calm about it, others will read that from your body language and speech when you come out to them. The other thing, which ties into the first, is to come out to one person at a time (yes, even to your parents!) More often than not, the person your coming out to will have a hard time processing what they've just heard, and will look to others to gauge how they should react- so if you're the only person in the room, your calm and comfortable demeanor will rub off on them. If however, you come out to two or more people at once, they tend to feed off of each other's discomfort... which could end negatively.

@ctmcmull

While it may be true in some cases fecal matter is holding public office, we in Pennsylvania had the good sense to boot Santorum's slippery ass to the curb. He is no longer a U.S. Senator. He's now just trying to be be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. Without much success. Damn Google column which is entirely the fault of a sex columnist (and the millions of us who adore Dan Savage).

Speaking as a straight man with many queer friends, the hardest part of the "coming out" conversation is pretending that you hadn't assumed they were already out.

I actually said "you mean you weren't already out?" once. That's what he gets for insisting we imbibe liquid courage before his "big reveal."

Well said, Christopher!

I like how you emphasize the hand first, even before you mention the mouth, when it comes to blowjobs. Watching bad porno blowjobs don't prepare young gay boys for the real thing.

@ACMTC Demon infestation, eh? Do we need to call the pest manager? Are you seriously comparing the rapists of Sodom to people who happen to love others of a similar gender?

ACMTC, it's actually people like you that spread more hate than any homosexual I've ever met. Ever. How about you go back through and actually read the 10 commandments and tell me if at any point it reads "Man (et al) shall not put his peen in or around another man." Try spreading some of that Christian compassion around, instead of ignorance.

To Christoher Frizelle:

Why didn't you write this advice in a place I could have read it in 1975? You would have saved me a lot of time.

Fortunately, I soon found "friends" who had started college in 1974!

When I first started teaching high school in 2004, I told myself that I'd never shy away from coming out to students, or sticking my neck out to help queer kids in need. I'm glad I made the pledge. And when I started teaching even younger students in junior high, all my students knew that I was gay. I strived to be the role model I never had.

At the same time, I totally relate to I Hate Screen Names' experience thinking "You mean you weren't already out?" At the end of last year, I said goodbye to an androgynous boy student who worships Lady Gaga and openly identified with the Blaine character on Glee. "Just keep being who you are," I told him. "You're a great kid and it's cool that we share something in common that's so important."

"And what would that be?" he snarled with a bitchy tone. Obviously the kid's queer, but I felt so busted. I guess some of us just want to support closet cases who aren't yet ready to be supported.

When I first started teaching high school in 2004, I told myself that I'd never shy away from coming out to students, or sticking my neck out to help queer kids in need. I'm glad I made the pledge. And when I started teaching even younger students in junior high, all my students knew that I was gay. I strived to be the role model I never had.

At the same time, I totally relate to I Hate Screen Names' experience thinking "You mean you weren't already out?" At the end of last year, I said goodbye to an androgynous boy student who worships Lady Gaga and openly identified with the Blaine character on Glee. "Just keep being who you are," I told him. "You're a great kid and it's cool that we share something in common that's so important."

"And what would that be?" he snarled with a bitchy tone. Obviously the kid's queer, but I felt so busted and disappointed. I guess some of us just want to support closet queers who aren't yet ready to be supported.

Yawn and longer yawn! As gay people seem hyper and paranoid and even downright disgruntled (Westboroitis) You need to jump the track and cut across the field and get back on the race track where you should be if this were not the backward backassed hillbilly redneck repukelickin festering pimple on a wombats anus called the united states?

Finding someone (same sex or not) who is truly comparable and fits in your world and likewise you fit in theirs is mission impossible so don't be shy and do be looking and trying real hard as you don't have any time as it is?
It's tally ho! Come out and come out charging with your hair on fire.
The deck is stacked so get real busy.

WTF, they couldn't ever outsource the lesbian section?? A very, very lousy ending to an otherwise decent article.

shitty lesbian section. what about tips on going down on a lady? its down right sexist to ignore lebians like that--it's like saying they (or women in general) dont matter. i feel like that happens a lot when discussing coming out--who cares about the women! arent the only gay people men?

@ mollyh, at least there's mention of lesbians. do trans people not exist in Seattle? Are they not allowed to have sexual partners?

heres how it goes…because of the time we are in you will have to come out eternally…It gets real boring by the time yer my age and implies that you can’t just be. if you think about having to know about people yer parents age having sex, it gets pretty yucky. imagine the delight your co-workers and other acquaintances, or dismay or worse, get from you having to OUT yerself every *explicative* time they get to know you ‘better” its so boring. yet so powerful when you do it the first times and the world doesnt end and you get to move about the cabin again. However, get prepared to being the genius bar for your friends who have so many questions about being gay..”Whats it like..?” Dont get any happy thoughts of self exploration because sure enough you’ll be on the set of OPRAH answering questions that you havent even materialized answers for. HANG WITH IT. dont be afraid to say I DONT KNOW. dont feel like the whole world rests upon your answer. keep them in the dark until YOU feel like you have something to say about the matter…

PS giving a blowjob should be more like making out with yer mans stuff. kissing groping licking and stuff let yer mind go wild..69 helps.

@16 and 17 -- That was just a joke about me not knowing about sex with women, considering I've never had it. Next year we'll have a lesbian write all about the ins and outs of women-on-women, k?

Frizzelle, let me know if you want a crash course.

Coming Out? Casting for a National Documentary

Is “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” the policy with your friends and family? Are you finally ready to tell people in your life that you are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender? Are you ready to shed your secret and be your true self? Is the desire to tell overwhelming and terrifying? Or do you feel you’ll be liberated? Are you afraid your loved ones will reject you?

If you are ready to come out and you appear between the ages of 18 and 24, email us at casting@gigantic.tv and tell us your story. Please include your name, location, phone number and a recent photo of yourself.