This probably won't be a long diary, so apologies in advance if it's less than substantial. I have been reading all of the coming out stories on here throughout the day and it reminded me of my experiences with those close to me that are LGBT (or GLBT, which is the most used convention?). Even though I wouldn't consider anything except heterosexual, I do like to consider myself someone very supportive of those who are not. Honestly this diary is not going to be all that interesting, just a reflection of a few experiences that ultimately aren't dramatic or even heart-warming really (at least I don't think so). Yeah I know not really something one should say about one's own diary.
While there are others I will not mention, there are two gay friends that most come to mind to me. One is a friend of mine who is in my college department and former co-worker, the other a former roommate.
I got to know the one friend (call him Dan) first since we worked in the computer labs together, albeit in different dorms. We got along well since we were almost in the same major (I am electrical engineer, he's computer engineering, but we shared many of the same classes) and had similar interests. However one of the first things that really came strong was his kind of squirrely nature with regards to his sexuality: he seemed like he was hinting that he was somehow different, and even asking if I noticed something awry with his facebook profile. He was like this for a month before he came out as being bisexual (he later became strictly gay), but by that time I had already deduced it (it was kind of heavy-handed hinting on his part), and I honestly didn't see it as that big a deal to me. I had no ill feelings of gays and honestly supported more or less every LGBT political issue, but this was really the first person who ever came out to me. Anyway Dan was kind of surprised that I had no negative reaction, and he admitted that I was one of the few people he had told this to even though he only barely knew me at this point. Fast forward a few months, he decided that he should probably come out to his family, and he discussed it with me and his natural fears. I convinced him that based on what he's said about them that they'd be supportive and it would be okay, although admitting I wouldn't really know. Fortunately I was right, his family has been supportive of him and his current partner, and while his mom for a while kept asking him if he was sure about his sexuality, it seemed like she already sort of knew.
The next person would be one of my roommates from last year (call him Justin). I had never met him nor talked to him before moving into our dorm room, although I had met my other roommates before. I did know he was gay though, from his facebook account (yeah I know, we young'uns and our internet things). I had to admit I was curious as to whether it would be weird or otherwise different having a gay roommate, as he would be the only gay one of us. I must say it didn't really seem to come across all that much, granted he never discussed it really to us, although he eventually started to talk more with me about it as time went on. He was just another nerdy science major, who shared many of my interests and similar disdain for our mutual roommate's habits (we tended to independently rebel against him when he irked us). However except for a few passing conversations we never really talked about his being gay until that spring, but nothing major until this fall. Then we started talking about relationships and dating as if the fact that we were different didn't matter (it doesn't). Well today I brought up the whole National Coming Out Day thing to him and he mentioned a rally we had on our quad about it (I didn't even know about it nor that today was NCOD), and commented about how it had helped him come out three years ago. So I inquired further about it and he told me how he came out to his parents, with his mom taking a while to accept it while his dad is still on a "don't ask don't tell" level about it, although his siblings are very supportive. I have to admit I felt a little sad about it, even though it seemed like he could have had it a lot worse. I also felt bad when he admitted that he has begun to notice that his non-gay friends are apprehensive of discussing anything LGBT related and would immediately change the subject if it came up. Never occured to me that it was such a touchy subject, as I often inquire about such issues and even brought up the Connecticut court ruling from the other day. So I did remind him that I was fully accepting, although not without a friendly insult about him being lame (it's an ongoing gag of ours).
Well that's all I really have to say. Sorry for talking your ears off over nothing all that interesting. Just thought it relevant from the talks I had today.