When I started this blog, I was concerned about what the reaction would be.  Obviously this is a subject that people have a lot of emotional ties to and I had no desire to be inflammatory or divisive. That said, I had come to the point where my need to live authentically far outweighed my need to avoid conflict or my fear of others’ disapproval, so there wasn’t much of a debate to be had.  It was time for me to come out of the closet.

I think any time someone comes out of the closet, regardless of the closet, they are risking losing some relationships.  This is never the intention, but its always a possibility.  I know that some might find this to be an impossible hurdle to overcome and that saddens me.  But if the result of me being honest about who I am is that you reject me, then what have I lost?  And those that stand by me are my true friends because they know and love who I really am, not what they want me to be.

I know that there are those of you that are still searching for a way to respond because you wholeheartedly disagree with me. This might take a while for you to sort out, but I’m okay with that.  In the end, it isn’t a requirement that you agree with me.  I just hope that you don’t equate accepting me as a person with endorsing all of what I believe.  We can respectfully disagree and it doesn’t have to restrict our relationship.  Sure things might look a little different then they used to, depending on the context of our relationship, but authenticity is the life blood of all healthy relationships.

Overall the response has been amazing.  I really appreciate all of you that have commented, emailed, called, or found other ways to engage with me.  The feedback and conversations have been so great, much more so then I had hoped for.  I’m excited to continue the conversation.  Either way, there’s certainly no stuffing me back in the closet now.

***Update: In my final edit of this post, I didn’t catch that I missed one very important word in the title.  I knew something was going on when I saw that I had more hits in the first three hours then ever before in a full day.  Sorry for the confusion, but hopefully most of you understood that I was referencing the agnostic closet.  I must say though, that this is my favorite typo of all time!***