I hope you stay. I'll be happy to hear more from you.
outing myself as an atheist will also mean outing myself as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, which undoubtedly played a large role in me leaving Christianity and not liking religion, and going into detail about the trauma I have and how Christianity has played a significant role in it. Not everyone deserves to know, but I also want to stop putting on a facade,
I don't make a big deal about outing myself. At one time when I discovered I was an atheist, I felt like I needed to talk about it, but I don't think it's necessary unless you want to be a part of an activist organization. I don't have an interest in that. I originally started participating in forums like this just to help sort out my own issues, and learn more about who I was.
Over the years I found out some of my closest friends were atheists. Can you imagine? I never knew because that's who they always were and it wasn't an issue for them like it was for me early on. They never brought it up. I don't think they were hiding it. It just wasn't that important to them. That's kind of the way I've become. I'm just happy with myself, and tend not get in other people's faces unless they demand that I be there.
Religion is a private matter. At least I think it should be, and the same goes for atheism. People that make issues out of everything, have too many issues, IMO. They are close cousins to the chaos junkies. I don't need that in my life. I probably make this sound too overly critical. I just don't find chaos and conflict very helpful to myself.
I did out myself as a wilderness advocate one time. I became president of an advocacy group. I became known as an environmentalist in Montana, which is not really the same thing as a wilderness advocate, but it does piss a lot of people off, especially those in industry. In order to move our agenda along, I had to out myself by calling attention to the failures of forest destruction. True, I made some very close friends, but some bitter enemies as well. It needed to be done, but it's a roller coaster. Some adapt to that better than others. So outing myself is something I'd only do when it reaches a certain level of necessity, or serves a greater purpose.
