I'm now out to two of my friends (well, four if you include their significant others) and it couldn't have gone better!
My first friend (a gay guy) immediately asked if I was getting enough support. Of course he asked the usual probing questions about where I plan on going with this and pronouns and names. But he commented that I seemed much happier once we finally started talking, and I have to agree with that. It's like this huge secret I've been keeping from people is finally off my shoulders and people can finally know how I see myself.
My other friend had a similar reaction! He asked a bunch of probing questions too, with a lot of overlap with the first guy. Then he reassured me that he still wants me to be standing on stage at his wedding, in fact his fiance even offered to let me switch over to a bridesmaid if I wanted! I declined, since I'm still not ready to be public with everybody. She's offered to help me learn makeup and anything else, too.
My first friend was harder to bring this up with than the second. Once I had something written I stared at the "send" button on Facebook for an hour AND I had to bribe myself with chocolate before I could bring myself to press it. There was much less hesitation the second time
. But these guys were both people I had on my "safe list" (people that I'm 99.9% sure would take it well) and the hope is that they'll help me figure out which of my other friends it's safe to tell.
Most importantly, one of my biggest fears was that I would start telling people but that nobody would believe me. That hasn't come true at all! They've both been very supportive and hopeful that I can eventually get to a point that I'm more comfortable with myself.
I love my friends!
