(letter opening)
- Alright, I'm going to read a story
about coming out.
(slow music)
- Okay.
- I'm 20 years old, Im gay,
- and I'm in a loving relationship
with the man of my dreams.
- I know that if I come out,
my family and many of the
people I've grown up with will disown me.
I know people like this.
- The sacrifice of my personal silence
for my parents pride is worth it.
- Watching other people come out
makes me happy and gives me
a sense of hope, yet, at the same time,
it hurts that I can't bring myself to do the same.
- That sucks because this guy is like trapped,
he's like, completely trapped.
- I have a friend that's really close to me
that can't come out
because he's scared of the same thing,
so, that hits really close to home.
And it's too bad because they're
a wonderful person and
I want them to be happy.
(letter opening)
- I'm 20 and I'm from Florida.
I only realized that I might not
be straight a year ago.
- I watched season one of Orange Is The New Black
three times and had no idea
why I liked it so much.
Um, full frontal nudity within like,
the first 10 seconds of episode one, season one.
- I had that same experience when I was
watching American Pie 2 when I was like 13 years old.
- Then, one night, after I had a dream about a girl,
I woke up in the middle of the night sweating
and stressed out and I started crying.
- That day, I skipped school and work
and stayed at home and watched every
lesbian movie on Netflix.
- I haven't come out yet because it scares me.
I care a lot about what people think about me.
- I've had multiple people ask me
if I was gay before, I've always denied it.
- This is hitting close to home though, for real.
- It's a lot harder when people ask you
if you're gay before you're ready to admit it,
not only to yourself, but to them.
- I know my parents, siblings, and friends
wouldn't care, but it's still really scary.
- It's a process for everybody,
so you have to respect that.
- They're even acknowledging the fact that
they know their parents,
siblings, and friends won't care.
I think that this person is in
the best possible situation.
(letter opening)
- I'm 17, from the west coast,
and I've known from a pretty young age
that I wasn't a boy,
but I wasn't exactly a girl either.
- It was really hard growing up around people
who constantly put me down
for showing interest in anything
that related to being feminine.
- My friends and family all made fun
of me and called me a faggot.
That really wore me down.
- I would wear dresses sometimes,
ones I borrowed from my older sister.
- I bet you looked better in them than she did.
- I also landed me in some broken bones.
- They'll pick on you if you're not wearing a dress.
They'll pick on you if you are wearing a dress,
so just wear the dress.
- I don't want people telling me
to pick a side already
or that it's just confusing to them.
- I just want people not to call me a girl or a boy
because I'm not those things.
- Regardless of what people say to you,
you are beautiful.
- I just wish I could come out
without being scared of my
identity being valid to some people.
- I think it's awesome that your
sister is supporting you and
honey, wear those dresses.
- I totally hear you on
not wanting to have to say
because it's just who you are.
- And you have the right to be true to yourself,
so just keep being you.
(letter opening)
- At this point in my life,
only a handful of friends know who I am.
- I've known that I'm bisexual for a while.
- I mean, surly if those people on TV
were brave enough to come out,
I could too, right?
- Any hope that I had, any dream that I had,
for my family would accept me for who I am
is slowly starting to disappear.
- As a parent, that just makes me sad,
that, I wouldn't want my child to
think that she couldn't believe that
she couldn't tell me anything, ya know.
- I've never been so terrified of my own family.
- I'll never come out.
Not for lack of wanting to, but because if I do,
I'll lose my family.
- I'll never come out because my school
is full of straight people who
mercilessly bullied the last kid who came out.
- I'll never come out because I read
what people write in the comment sections of a video.
- Because people think I'm disgusting,
I don't get to come out. I can't
- Oh my gosh, that's just
(cries)
- I hope the world changes enough
in the next few years
for this person to feel like they can come out.
- You hear stories like that,
that peoples' families don't accept them,
but then to actually read it from someone's point of view,
It's just so sad.
(slow music)