My Little Bro

I haven't posted in a bit, and I realized I haven't even shared that I came out to my little brother. This is important for two reasons. For one, because it was another major coming our moment for me. Second, because even in my decision to stop censoring my life with co-workers and friends I still wasn't sure I was going to clue my family in. Not that I don't get along with my family or anything, and I know they would accept me and love me even if I told them about my bisexuality...I just somehow had ruled that out as a necessity for my life. I also didn't want to deal with my Dad's probable response, which would be an incredulous "Well, what do you mean!?"

However, I recently had my little bro come over to hang out with me, and when the conversation strayed a certain way...I just went for it.

My brother is 10 years younger than I am. I will be turning 30 next year, he will be turning 20. We have always had a great relationship despite our age difference. When he was little I felt very much like a third parent to him, and as he got older we had more and more fun adventures together. When I went away at the age of 21 to live on my college campus, we drifted a bit, but he has always been my buddy. Since giving birth to my son, and my brother graduating high school, (which he did late because of some time he lost when hospitalized as a teenager) I like to invite him over to hang out during the day when Hubby is at work and my brother is free of plans.

On the day I told him, we were sitting in my living room, Baby Boy was napping, and my Bro and I were chatting mostly about nerdy video game stuff, and somehow, we got onto the topic of discrimination. During the course of this convo, my brother told me he wasn't sure he believed bisexuals really existed. So then I asked him: "What if I told you I was bisexual?"

It was easy. No heart pounding through my chest like last time. I wasn't scared with my brother for some reason.

At first, he didn't believe me. He told me three times he thought I was kidding, and that there was no way I was. So then I explained to him about how I had known it all my life, how it meant that I was attracted to both men and women, and could have been with either one in a relationship, but that I ended up falling in love with my husband and he happened to be a man. I told him it didn't mean I would cheat, or become a lesbian someday. I told him that I had just never told him before because I didn't think it really needed to come up.

Then, he believed me. He also admitted that his reason for doubting bis existed was that some people he had known in high school said they were bi, and then turned out later to just have been curious or vying for attention. I told him that, yeah, some people do that, but some, like me, are really, truly, bi.

We then laughed for a minute, imagining how my parents would react if I told them. Then we went on to other things and it didn't come up again.

It was awesome for me to have such an easy time telling someone, especially someone as awesome and important in my life as my little brother. It is also awesome to think that I have enlightened him a bit, and that he is now another ally out there in the world who understands that some people really are bisexual and can be monogamous.