I’m Coming Out

One Man’s Journey to Accepting His Heterosexuality

I’ll be sixty-one in a few weeks from now. As the last quarter of my life ticks ever more rapidly away it’s natural to reflect on the course of one’s life and look at lessons learned.

My life has yielded few regrets as I’ve always tried to do what I believed to be right at the time. But I know, deep in my heart, that it’s time to go public with my sexual orientation.

When my children were growing up and we talked from time to time about love and relationships, I was always clear that the most important things were that both people like each other and that both people are able to be kind. Gender and orientation matter far, far less regardless of what social norms or mythological fairy tales may claim to the contrary.

Today, thankfully, people aren’t as terrified of sexual variety as they were when I was young. Homosexuality is now widely accepted in the West, as are a wide variety of sexual preferences and practices. Sure, there are still bigots and idiots, there are still closet homosexuals busy shouting about how bad homosexuality is in the hope that their friends and family won’t notice their own predilections (and yes, we are talking about a huge number of Republicans here), but by and large across the OECD we’re more relaxed than we used to be.