-Make sure you are safe: safety is a top priority and if your coming out could cause physical harm to you, reach out to someone else you know is supportive and tell them about this concern.

-It is your choice: nobody else should make you feel that you need to come out, and nobody show make you feel that you shouldn't come out.

-You don't have to do it all at once: you can tell some people and not others, maybe just close friends/family to start with. It doesn't need to be overwhelming, make sure you are comfortable, and don't feel pressured to tell everybody at once.

If someone comes out to you, they are taking a risk, and letting you understand them better. Always be supportive because that person may feel vulnerable.

Outing someone is when you express that person's identity when they didn't want you to. This action can put that person in an unsafe or uncomfortable situation because the person you outed them to may not be supportive. It is not okay to out someone. The person that you outed someone to may not be supportive, and at the very least you are putting the person you are outing in an uncomfortable and scary situation. At the very worst you could be putting them in a life-threatening one.

It is not your job to force someone to come out either. You can encourage them, but if they aren't comfortable, they aren't comfortable. You have to respect that.

Sometimes, you can accidentally out people with their pronouns, so make sure that you know if a person doesn't want certain pronouns to be used in front of certain people. A good idea is to ask them about who they are out to when they come out to you.

Examples of Outing People (some have occurred at school):

-Emailing parents and talking about the gender identity/sexual orientation of a student.

-Sharing, even if anonymously, a piece of writing that involves a student/faculty's gender identity or sexual orientation.

-Mentioning a person's pronouns to someone else if that person isn't out to everyone (true whether it is between teachers, students, faculty, etc.)

-Announcing people's pronouns to the class or grade, not checking with that person.

-Gossiping about someone's gender identity or sexual orientation.

-Mentioning a person's identity to their parents during conferences, back to school night, etc.