i heard it through the grape vine...

I have recently been made aware of a rumor circulating amongst the old college crowd regarding my sexuality. Apparently, I have become a topic of conversation at parties, weddings, get togethers...I feel so popular. It all started innocently enough with me opting to post my sexual orientation on my MySpace account. I have gay friends who for whatever reason, maybe for this very reason, choose not to post their sexual orientation on their profile. I thought, fuck it...who cares? Apparently, many people do. Hell, had I known coming out would be this easy I'd have created my MySpace profile a long time ago. As most rumors go, this one has spread like wildfire.

I don't really care that people know, in fact I prefer that they do know that way I know who's fake. I guess what bugs me is that there are people out there who share this information freely without so much a thought about the consequences it might have for the person they're outting. Maybe I'm just biased, but I have a problem with someone going around outting people. I mean, coming out is a very personal choice and to have someone making that choice for me kind of gets under my skin. Granted I chose to post the information on my profile and it is available to anyone who happens upon my profile, but I'm not going around telling everyone and anyone that I'm gay.

I guess people don't realize the impact of outting someone. We live in a society that for the most part still frowns upon what it has labeled a "life style". Spreading that kind of rumor is totally different from spreading a rumor that, say I knocked someone up. Knocking someone up doesn't have the potential of hurting current or future relationships, unless you happen to knock up a friend's wife. Having one's sexuality advertised, especially in a straight male dominated field such as mine, runs the risk of hurting possible career relationships as well. On the upside, I wouldn't want to work for or with any homophobes anyway.

I guess I should be thankful that this rumor is doing all the leg work for me, as far as coming out to those around me. We'll see how all this goes down.