by Lynette Alice

Created on: April 28, 2009

Coming out is perhaps one of the most important things and LGBT person will ever do in their life, and although it is something they do for them self, it makes a difference in the lives of the people around them as well. It goes without saying that not everyone agrees on what is the most important reason for coming out, and as everyone is unique the difference it makes in the lives of each person is going to be different. The best way to try to explain Therefore, the best way to look at the importance of coming out and the difference it makes is too look at the experience of one person and their journey through coming out and the difference it made for them.

A little boy who was only four years old found himself sitting with an older woman who was asking him one question after the other. "Do you know your ABC's?", "Can you count to ten?", and "Can you spell your name?" were the very basic types of answers she sought. After several minutes of talking she asked the young boy to draw a picture of himself. He took the pack of eight crayons and began scribbling away. Satisfied with what he had accomplished he gave it to the woman. She looked at the young boy and asked who it was he had drawn. He said it was him. She smiled and took the picture with her when she went into the next room where his parents were waiting to hear how the kindergarten screening had gone.

She related that while she was amazed by the detail of the photo which included eyes, ears, a mouth nose, fingers, toes, and even a belly button, that she was worried as to why it also included long hair, breasts and a dress. Nobody seemed to know what the answer was, but everyone seemed deeply concerned. Without realizing it, the little boy had come out of a closet he never knew existed. The young boy went under more focused direct questioning from his parents, counselors, priests, and seemingly anyone that ever earned the right to hang a diploma or certificate of some sort on the wall. Some felt the child was going through a phase, others said he was a transsexual, some said he was gay, and yet others insisted he was just confused and needed a good dose of being butched up.

As he was quite adamant he liked girls and maintained that insistence for three years, the gay "diagnosis" was dropped and as transsexualism was something a child at that time was considered unable to grasp, nearly everyone "prescribed" a regiment of continually telling the child "you are a boy" and having him do every stereotypically

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