G&STC Director Jesse Kahn Talks with The Vitamin Shoppe About the Health Benefits of Coming Out
Check out G&STC’s Director Jesse Kahn talking with Gabrielle Kassel at the Vitamin Shoppe about the health benefits that come with coming out.
Before we outline its health benefits, let’s settle on an understanding of what coming out really means. “Coming out is the entire process of becoming aware of, proclaiming, and/or sharing with others who you are,” says Jesse Kahn, L.C.S.W., C.S.T., director and sex therapist at The Gender & Sexuality Therapy Center in NYC.
Usually, we use the term “coming out” to refer to the process of sharing information about sexual orientation. But according to Kahn, we can also use the phrase in reference to the sharing of information like gender, romantic orientation, relationship orientation, relationship structure, and/or personal kinks.
In addition, coming out can also help connect individuals to like-minded individuals and communities, as well as help them find potential partners, Kahn notes. This makes sense considering previous research has linked a strong social support system with a variety of health benefits, including decreased rates of depression, lower blood pressure, and even a longer life.
“Everyone is on their own journey and coming out doesn’t look the same for everyone,” Kahn says. Coming out is a personal decision and we all get to decide what it means for us, looks like for us, when we do it, and if we do it at all.
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“Coming Out” can also include relationship orientations and structures, kink, etc! And there is no definition or requirement for who you’re coming out to and in what settings.
While we understand coming out as an act relating to challenging cis + heteronormativity, we can expand our understanding of coming out to understand it as coming into queer subcultures.
Not coming out or feeling closeted can look different for everyone and can be for different reasons. For some people that have to hide or shield parts of themselves in certain situations. The extent to which this feels painful, difficult or self fragmenting is different for everyone. I would imagine part of that is impacted by the degrees to which you’re not out and if you have spaces where you do feel seen.
Coming out is not a requirement - everyone is on their own journey with what coming out means and looks like for them.
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