Today is National Coming Out Day. Yes, today, October 11 celebrates the LGBT community and coming out, their stories and struggles that they went though while coming out.

Here is a story from ElloSteph on YouTube about her coming out story.

We all have fantasy crushes on movie starts. Miss RoseEllenDix (below) has a great coming out story that kind of relates to my coming out story. I was also 13 when I realized I was different and I was attracted to girls. Even though she jokes about her crushes, I can say it wasn’t very easy at the same time.

Picture this – getting changed for gym class was the most difficult thing for me. I didn’t want the other girls to see me get changed and I didn’t want the other girls see me look at them. Back then I was so scared, confused and I didn’t want anyone to know I was different.

When you are in secondary school and learning about yourself and your sexuality and that it is not accepted, it made for a very difficult time. Also that your sexuality is the minority and looked down upon, it can make for an awkward teenage upbringing. In my high school no one was gay. If they were gay they kept it to themselves. I came from a fairly small town and it wasn’t until after high school graduation and even after college that more of my friends came out.

I remember one of my guy friends came out as gay right after graduation. I could sense he was struggling with something huge because his personality changed so much just before. You see he was always a fun, happy, and a bubbly person. Months before he came out I could see he wasn’t himself, sad and a bit private.

It was great when he actually did come out only because there was thirty of us there and I think it was easier for him to just tell everyone at once. We were so happy that he was able to talk to us about it. Everyone accepted him for who he was and showed him love. We spent four years as a close-nit group of friends and something like that couldn’t change the way we felt about him.

He is such an awesome person. It did help the fact that probably some of us already knew he was gay. You see during final year of high school he began to change. His personality became a bit more feminine and more flamboyant but you would only get glimpses of it at a time. Anyways, he has always been an awesome friend and I am so grateful that he allows himself to stay true to who he is!

Love yourself with no shame or regret!  It’s ok to be you! Love yourself and who you are. Happy National Coming Out Day!

Be patient with people.