Telling is a very big thing and once started there is no nkowing where it might end up, for me not telling and keeping it a secret as such began to eat away at me. A friend who had drifted away because of my ex wife's lack of total acceptance that she was trans gender was the friend that I reconnected with after my wife left me and subsequently confided in. This very first "telling" gave me the strength that I needed to enable me to "come out" properly and slowly and surely my life opened up but not without glitches along the way, the losing of to friends (couples), but as has been pointed out to me often since then " how true were they as friends?" has rung true well and truly since then.
If ones explanations, (fully and frankly) are given, I believe this softens the often unsaid surprise of telling in the first instance and often leads to the same strength of friendship continuing.
