Sera Cahoone is a musician living in Seattle, Washington. She has three albums out on Sub Pop records and is currently on tour. She shared her story with us for National Coming Out Day.
Coming out isn’t something you do once. Coming out is something you do again and again, in different ways, throughout your life.
I pretty much knew from an early age that I wasn’t like other kids and I wasn’t into boys. In high school, I came out to myself when I fell in love with a girl. We kept our relationship a secret and it was very scary for us both.
After high school, I met a girl online when I was 19. I was living at home with my family and she lived across the country. We started chatting on the phone. She was nice and we hit it off. She started sending flowers to my work and I told everyone they were from my mom. “Haha! My mom is so sweet.”
The next thing I know this girl tells me she just bought a ticket to Denver to visit me and she will see me next week. I kinda freaked out. “What the heck am I going to tell my family and friends? Who is this person coming into town?”
The person I finally told was my brother. He was putting the pieces together and knew something was up. He was like, “What’s with all these flowers?” I started crying and broke down and told him. Then he started crying, and, of course, my mom calls in the middle of us crying and comes right home.
That’s how I ended up coming out to my family. While it never worked out with the girl, I’m very thankful for her. She made me come out and it was the best thing I could have done. My family and friends were supportive from the beginning and I was so much happier. Even though it was so damn scary.
I’ve been out for years in all aspects of my life, but I now find myself coming out in a whole new way. Recently I got engaged to my fiancé, Megan Rapinoe. She is a professional athlete and she is also very passionate and outspoken about LGBT causes. That’s something I really love and admire about her. I’m more of a private person so getting engaged in the public eye is new for me, but I think it’s important to be out and proud of who you are and the person that you love.
This little lady is getting married too!
A photo posted by Sera Cahoone (@seracahoone) on Aug 6, 2015 at 8:25pm PDT
