A significant character in my soon-to-be-finished novels, “Flamenco & the Sitting Cat,” and its sequel, “Tango & the Sitting Cat,” is an American/South Asian gay man. While researching his identity, I encountered Rys’ excellent site! Indian by birth and now working as a physician in the U.S., Rhys shares some of his wisdom with us here…

“Let it go! 10 commandments of coming out of that damn closet!!” by Rhys
As I had promised in my post about coming out to my parents, here are a few tips/tricks on how to come out, if you are very nervous and not able to decide what to do (as I was initially).
The answer to the big question, “how to come out?” is ………… “There is NO one way or magic trick to do it!”
Everyone is different, with different family structures, different backgrounds, and people they grew up with. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing I can tell you to guide you for your coming out process. So, here are the 10 commandments of coming out. I compiled these from mine and Nick’s experience. The list is in NO way exhaustive, but does highlight the most important points:
- There is NO need to rush to come out. EVER!! The best time to come out is when you feel like you are prepared – be it 10 weeks, 10 months, or 10 years!
- You have to be 100% comfortable with yourself FIRST before coming out to your family, peers, or any random Tom, Dick, or Harry (pun intended) 🙂 If you aren’t comfortable with yourself (physically, mentally, spiritually, sexually, and every way you can think of), it becomes hard to stay strong in such a stressful situation.
- It’s 2019 -> Make use of technology. FaceTime, etc., aren’t the most ideal way to come out, but I have realized that having the physical distance can help in decompressing some of the tension and harsh situations, which is VERY common during coming out. I used video calling to come out to my whole family. Since I had no plans of meeting my family for an extended period of time, and I was ready to come out. So, I thought video calling was the answer. Believe me, the physical distance was super helpful, especially to decompress the situation in the first few days (but video calling has its cons as well like not being there to actually encounter the aftereffects, which might make some of us feel guilty – read further below).
- Be direct -> If there is any situation in life where you don’t wanna beat around the bush, this is one of those times. The more you talk about random BS and take 30-45 mins to come to the point, your audience would have been exhausted already. (Remember, the average attention span for humans is 25-45 minutes.) I admit of being guilty at this myself too. I talk a lot (if in case you haven’t noticed yet :P), and sometimes, the main point is lost in my jargon. It took me 5 attempts (6 video calls in 3 days) to eventually gather the right words just to say it bluntly “I have a boyfriend, and I am gay!” Boom – silence follows (as if you weren’t expecting that – haha!).
- Divide and conquer -> This isn’t ethically the most appropriate title, but it was REALLY helpful. When I started coming out in my med school, I came out one by one to my close friends first. Using the same technique, I first came out to my brother and sister-in-law, and 6 months later to my parents. It serves a dual purpose: not having the added stress from everyone at once and also, the people you came out to already can help others come to terms with the “shock.” My brother and sister-in-law were a HUGE support for my parents at the time when I came out to them over FaceTime.
A little about Rhys in his own words: I am a physician from the East Coast of the USA, who grew up and spent 25 years of his life in India, before moving to the west! Currently living with my boyfriend, Nick, I often post on our joint blog, which we created in 2012 when we started dating. He is also a physician, and we love to travel, are big-time foodies (absolutely love brunches!), and are happy to make new friends always!
Here’s the rest of his commandments! Have you met new friends through blogs? What’s your experience with coming out in any country?…
Hi great readinng your post
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Glad you liked it 😀
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Rhys writes with courage and grace.
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I may use Rhys advice thank you da-AL !!
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he is very open & friendly – I’m sure he’d love to help you – you can go to his site & reach him from there directly
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thank you 😉
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I recently came out to my brother because we are very close … he was quite surprised as he tought I was straight because I have statues of young ladies without much clothes on in my bathroom and toilet and probably for other reasons,.. but he just gave me that one reason… I will have to come out to my parents and my aunt because she wants me to meet ladies and choose one and that I get married and my mother would like to be a grandmother, she loves children and would like at least one grand son or daughter !!
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families can have so many expectations of us. I hope your brother was kind to you
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he was stunned, but kind. He doesn’t mind gay people 🙂
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Thank goodness ❤
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❤
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I find it sad that it should still be such an ordeal for gay people to come out because of the possible unkind reaction of their surroundings. We should really be done with these prejudices by now … it makes me sad that we are not!
I met a lot of interesting people through my blog and would very much like to meet quite a few in person. However, that would take me around the world, and I don’t have that kind of money. Maybe I can meet some of those that live in Europe though …
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I agree with you, Birgit — sometimes it feels like we are still in the stone age (tho perhaps things were more enlightened then?) — zooming to the future, as for meeting the friends we make in person, wouldn’t it be nice if we could have transporters like in Star Trek?
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Haha, zoom me over, da-AL … 😀
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… the worst is that the campaigns against LGBTs and other minorities – including death threats – is done in the name of Christianity. How do they get the idea that this is what God or Jesus wants?
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Yes, it makes them all the more ridiculous & horrible
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On point #2, I doubt most of us were “100% comfortable” with ourselves before we came out. The process of opening up, I suspect, can be part of what leads us to becoming more and more comfortable with our true selves. Young folks can contact the Trevor Project for support and information. http://www.thetrevorproject.com
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Thanks much, Brian, for adding your wisdom 🙂
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Yes and we started a blog about our shared love of cycling http://www.velovoices.com.
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And a wonderful blog it is 🙂
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Thanks!
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