Discreet? You’re not the only one... outness is complicated

We hear phrases like “Be out and proud!” tossed around and it can be easy to think that coming out is a one-time event that everyone must go through.

As gay and queer visiblity increases in mainstream popularity, some people assume that now it’s easy for everyone to come out, and that the “closet” belongs in the teen years of a person’s life.

For many of us, it’s not so simple.

The truth is there are many reasons why some of us don’t come out. And for those of us who consider ourselves out, it’s never a one time thing and we probably think about our safety and comfort in different situations before we do so. We have to decide whether to come out with every new person we meet: coworkers, doctors, or the person you sit beside on a plane. At the end of the day, how out we are doesn’t have to get in the way of taking care of our sexual health, accessing counselling, or building community.

Visit HIM’s new online resource to unpack the complexities of outness, find resources on taking care of ourselves while being less out, and how to support community members whose experiences with outness may be different from our own.
outness.ca

If you know of any virtual events, services, or organizations of interest to queers during the Covid-19 Social Distancing times please send them over to us at whatsonqueerbc@gmail.com