[Special guest] Twenty10 talks about coming out.

[Ben-RO]

In an ideal world we could be whoever we want to be and everyone would be cool with that. We know that gender, sexuality and attraction are things that can be different for everyone.

Here's a cool unicorn from TSER that explains a lot about gender and also a bit about sexuality:

It can take a little while to figure out your own identity and that's totally okay!
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Things are made a little more complicated by the fact that people still make assumptions. A lot of people have never realized that the sex you are born as is not necessarily the gender you actually are. A lot of people assume that if you're a boy, you like girls and if you're a girl you like boys when the truth is, you can be attracted to anyone you want or even nobody at all.

So sometimes we have to let people know. We call this coming out, or disclosure. You don't have to do it, but if you choose to there are some great places to go to get more support and to answer any questions you might have.

On the 26th of May at 9pm AEST we're going to talk about coming out with Twenty10 an amazing organization that's dedicated to supporting young people with diverse genders or sexuality.

As always we let you ask them questions completely anonymously (just in case you're not ready to talk out in the open yet). You can see the answers to the questions you asked here

See you on the 26th of May at 9pm AEST!

[Chessca_H]

Hey everyone, welcome to tonight's infobus session! Tonight we're going to be talking about coming out with the help of the good people over at Twenty10, as well as @milohunto (AKA Jessie) who works as a Sex & Gender Diverse Access Worker at the Women's Health Centre.

Before we get started, just make sure you've had a little look at our community guidelines and keep them in mind while we're chatting. 

Also, if there's any point during tonight's session that you start to feel at all distressed I really encourage you to check out our emergency help info, which you can kind at the top right hand corner of the page, and have a talk to someone about how you're feeling.

Time to get started with the first question!

What does coming out mean to you?

[Ben-RO]

Hey everyone! Thanks for joining us @Bobby-Twenty10 and @milohunto!

[ClCl]

Hello everyone!! Super excited for this discussion tonight!!

[Chessca_H]

To me, coming out just means being honest with myself and other people about who I am (coming out to myself was far more important to me, other people I'm much more selective about). It's just about not feeling like I have to hide anything or lie to fit in with what some people would consider "normal" in terms of attraction

[Rainbow Lane]

Hello everyone! I'm really looking forward to talking about coming out tonight, and I'm super excited about our guests!

What does coming out mean to you?
For me it means being myself, and showing the people around me that I care and trust them enough to let them in. I do look forward to a day where people don't have to come out about the gender or sexuality though

[ClCl]

What does coming out mean to you?

To me it means talking to people around you about how you feel and identify and sort of making things officially known.

[RecoveryandHope]

Hi everyone, thanks for "coming out" tonight (fingers crossed i'm the only one to use that one) 

What does coming out mean to you?

It is revealing to the world a part of yourself that you have kept hidden away because the culture/society you were brought up in has trouble handling the amazing diversity of people. Personally it was one of the scariest things I have done. 

[Chessca_H]

My coming out talk jam for the night

[OceanMaster1207]

Hi everyone,

Great topic tonight, can't wait for the discussion!

What does coming out mean to you?

To me coming out is disclosing part of your identity to other people- whether it be sexuality, gender expression, gender identiy, or a range of different things which may not exactly be considered the norm within society. We come out because it allows us to express ourselves the way we would like without always having to explain it to other people. Personally I see coming out as an ongoing process, we constantly have to decide to "come out" to other people, including ourselves.