Steven LaChance Blog

Here’s something I’ve learned over the years. Coming out is not a one time event. It is not just something gay people do. It is something we all do, over and over again, in different ways, throughout our lives.

We just do not always call it that.

Coming out is what happens when you finally tell someone who you really are. Or what you believe. Or what matters to you. It is the moment you stop editing yourself to fit into this world and begin living in it as your full self.

For some of us, coming out first meant admitting who we love. That comes with risk. Judgment. Loss sometimes. But it also teaches you something early on. It teaches you that telling the truth about yourself takes courage, and that not everyone is going to be comfortable with it.

That lesson stays with you.

Years later, I realized I was still coming out, just in different ways. Every time I tell someone I believe in the paranormal, I can feel it happen. The pause. The look. The subtle shift in how they see me. It feels familiar. It feels a lot like those early conversations about being gay.

Because belief works the same way.

The moment you say something that falls outside what is considered normal or safe or acceptable, you step into vulnerability. You risk being misunderstood. You risk being labeled. You risk standing alone for a minute.

That is coming out.

We all do it in our own ways. When we admit we are struggling. When we share grief. When we talk about faith or doubt. When we finally say what we really think. When we stop pretending we are fine. When we choose honesty over comfort. Some of us come out about who we love. Some about what we believe. Some about trauma. Some about dreams we have been afraid to say out loud.

Different details. Same courage.

If more people understood that coming out is something we all experience, it would stop feeling so foreign. It would stop being framed as something only certain people do. It would just feel human.

Because at its core, coming out is simply choosing to be real.

And that always costs something.

Truth costs courage.