The way I see it, coming out is for our own happiness. We LGBTQ+ people too, need a calm, honest life, which is based on accepting and expressing our feelings and thoughts, first to ourselves, and then to others as well. Hiding and secrecy can become an obstacle to living a fulfilled life, both short and long-term.
The phrase “coming out of the closet” originates from around 1960. Nowadays we use it to express the identity-revealing action of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ) people, using a shorter version of the original phrase, “coming out”. In English, the phrase literally means getting out of the closet from hiding, from darkness.
The goal of qLit’s Outober is to make coming out easier for people who are related to the topic in any way.
It might be for you, a teenager waiting to come out, or a woman in a new workplace who’s not out yet, or you, terrified mother, whose daughter just revealed that her neighbor Fanni is more than just a friend, or you, a helping friend, perhaps even you, dear grandfather, listening to your grandchild’s story of heartbreak while filling a pipe.
Everyone might find a story close to their heart. Even qLit’s team is sharing a few of our own, just like our applicants have.
It was uplifting to read stories beginning like “I’m Niki, 17, and I am finally saying it, I’m a lesbian”, continuing with “I was in love, with my feet 10 centimeters above the ground”, and with endings like “from that day on, me and my family have gotten closer than ever before”.
Have you sent your story yet? You still have time until midnight.
Translated by Éva Csermendy
