I tried coming out at 18. It didn’t go so well. I told my best friend… who then never spoke to me again. It was embarrassing, we were doing the same training scheme and would bump into each other. He completely ignored me.
I was glad when that year was over, I went off to university and never saw him again. I do wonder about him sometimes, and did a little digging. He appears to have completely vanished.
After that, in my first year at uni I had an awful experience and nailed the closet door shut until I was 26.
I had a seizure that was… misunderstood by the people I was with and my own escape was to clam up completely about it for some years.
I did eventually talk to a therapist who gave me a good explanation, it just took some time.
I’m ace/homoromantic.
Thankfully I live in a pretty queer friendly area. I never technically came out, I just brought my GF with me to Thanksgiving one year. I absolutely gave my parents a heads up, but my personal philosophy is that if I wouldn’t have to come out if I was straight, I shouldn’t have to come out just because I’m gay. Thankfully my parents stopped inviting the problematic parts of my family years ago, so everything went super well. I’m effectively out to everyone generally in my day to day life.
My being ace though is nobody’s business except for my GF and tends to not come up in conversation lol