Coming Out Story

(posted by Nick, '11)

In the spirit of coming out day, I'd like to share with you my coming out experience at Vassar.

At the beginning of freshman year, I was out to no one here.  After a few weeks, if people hadn't figured it out, I ultimately came out to them... except my roommates.  I wasn't sure how they'd take it, and since I had to live with them I kept it on the down-low until I could figure out how they'd react.

That plan didn't work out so well.

A day in October, another boy and I were hooking up when his roommate walked in.  He was very apologetic and offered to leave immediately, but the damage was done; the mood was lost.  So we hugged, said we'd get together and never hung out ever again. =)

Anyway, I thought the story was ridiculously awkward and funny so when my roomies got back that day I HAD to tell them.  Of course, since I wasn't out to them, I had to use gender-neutral pronouns like "they" and "them."  This went very well, with the exception of a single line - I was so excited that I said "And then his roommate walked in."

My stomach DROPPED when I heard the words leaving my mouth.  My mind had two words in it:  OH. SHIT.

But they handled it quite well; they didn't even really acknowledge it.  We talked about it the next day, and they said when we all first met, they had a convo once about it, but they really didn't care.  What a relief.

What's your coming out story?