I'm in a weird place right now where I'm basically full-time in my social life, and I'm out to all the friends I really care to hang out with at all. I also have some excellent new friends who really only know me as Melissa. So, in a lot of ways, I'm definitely asserting my identity at this point. I'm still very much not out to family and work though, and so I too find myself in a slightly uncomfortable in-between place, albeit a very different one.
I only relate my situation here to agree with Inna that there is absolutely a continuum of asserting your identity, and I certainly don't see any problem with moving smoothly along it. Ripping off the band-aid, so to speak, isn't strictly necessary.
