Living as a queer person means that to live honestly and authentically you must constantly come out. You must announce yourself publicly or risk being branded a liar. Never mind that there is no similar requirement for straight people.

Is this really true, though? I have little experience in a "community" of other queer individuals (aside from on the internet), and I always figured it wasn't a necessity to just ... constantly announce myself. My sister didn't need to stand up at Thanksgiving dinner and tell the whole family, "I like men," so why should I do the same with my preferences? By stating our "need" to constantly announce ourselves, then isn't that basically the same thing as self-segregation?

I keep fairly quiet because I haven't dated a woman since I've been back home (to be fair I've only dated a handful of men, and most of those were setups by well-intending family). I have every intention of being frank about it if I should meet someone, but I just don't see the point of shouting it from the rooftops every single day. Maybe I will when I'm in love; I don't know.

I speak up about equal rights and shush my sister and cousins when they say things are "so gay," and I've told them about my intent to go to the Pride parade (we got rained out), and I don't know -- this is my version of "living honestly," because to me it makes more sense to be subtle and perhaps a little bit manipulative.

I mean, this is how I came out in my personal life, with my friends, and it was nothing earth-shattering, simply Oh, Jen Has a Girlfriend; or Oh, Jen Thinks That Chick is Hot. And this was without knowing how they'd react.