Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Jeff Levy, LCSW
(originally posted on Branching Out: The Live Oak Blog, and Linked In, May 2017)

I was reading an article in the Chicago Tribune about Barry Manilow, his recent public “coming out,” and acknowledgment of his marriage to his partner of 40 years.  The article talked about the mixed reactions of the public ranging from support to questions about why Manilow waited so long.
 
What disturbed me most about the article was its implication that coming out means we are finally living authentically.  The author writes, about his own coming out:  “I felt my mind clear and my stomach quiet.  Life was different now.  I knew that.”  And later he writes “but living my truth in public outweighed all that.  I was free to be me at last.”

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