Quote Originally Posted by rebekkadg View Post
The social stigma to it varies widely depending on where you live and from different places people work and different families they come from. When faceing strong social stigma from all sides being "found out" can lead to a lot more than simply people's displeasure, it can lead to inability to continue at your job, hostile relations with relatives, open hostility to your presence from your community, and in some cases outright violence.
I have yet to see one single post here were a girl lost their job, was excommunicated from their family, or was subjected to violence (while in decent parts of town, there are always places to get hurt, CD or not)). Yes it has led to more than a few divorces, and for the girl in the neighborhood with the murderer and machine guns, I'd be afraid to go out as a man, that's not a CD issue, it's a neighborhood issue.

Look ladies, some of you get what I'm saying, that you biggest fear is fear itself, but some of you cling to that fear so tightly that you can't see straight. I know we live in a society where fear is a commodity freely passed around by our politicians, but the truth of reality is that it's really not as bad as you think it will be.
Before I took the steps I did, I felt exactly as you do. I would lose my job, my family would at best think I was a freak, at worst excommunicate me, my friends would all abandon me, and then make fun of me. But you know what? none of it happened. I'm still employed, My family loves me, my friends are still here, and now I have way more friends than I could have ever imagined, all from the CD community. If I had held on to the believe that the consequneses were too great, that the ramifications too steep, I would never be here, and you won't either.
I said that if only one of you made it out of the dark, safe closet then it was worth it, and it was, I have gotten private messages saying that they were going out now and that my little push was at least a small part of why.
Yes I can be an ass, and I could have minded my own business, but then maybe somewhere there would be at least one girl who missed the best thing in their life, and that would be a shame.