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Browse these 13 reasons why you need to kick down the closet door and take your first fabulous step into a new world.
If you’re in the United States or Europe in October of 2016, it’s time, girl. Coming out was not an option for LGBT people of a certain age in the past, but that time has long since passed. There are 70-year-olds who have been living their authentic selves for the last 50 years. You can too, and it’s a disservice to those in other parts of the world, where coming out is dangerous, not to. Even in this country, there are still pockets of radical faith in which our own are oppressed and silenced. You must come out. Doing so empowers them — and it’s good for you, too. I promise.
ALEXANDER CHEVES is a columnist for The Advocate. Follow his blog, The Beastly Ex-Boyfriend, and his Twitter @BadAlexCheves.
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Alexander Cheves
Alexander Cheves is a memoirist, sex columnist for Out Magazine, and author of My Love Is a Beast: Confessions from Unbound Edition Press, which won the 2022 Geoff Mains Nonfiction Award from NLA International.
He received an Excellence in Journalism Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and, in 2021, was named to the Out 100. He has been a guest on many radio shows and podcasts, including Loveline and Dan Savage’s Savage Lovecast. He has spoken on panels at SXSW, The International AIDS Conference, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and others. His second book will come out in 2025.
As a contributing editor at The Advocate, Cheves launched the “Sexy Beast” column for Advocate.com in 2016. To date, it has generated the site's best traffic on record. He now writes the "Last Call" column in print editions of Out Magazine. His bylines include VICE, Them, Document Journal, Out Traveler, and more.
Originally from the American South, he now lives in Berlin and is a member of the Berlin Queer Writers Circle.
Alexander Cheves is a memoirist, sex columnist for Out Magazine, and author of My Love Is a Beast: Confessions from Unbound Edition Press, which won the 2022 Geoff Mains Nonfiction Award from NLA International.
He received an Excellence in Journalism Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and, in 2021, was named to the Out 100. He has been a guest on many radio shows and podcasts, including Loveline and Dan Savage’s Savage Lovecast. He has spoken on panels at SXSW, The International AIDS Conference, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and others. His second book will come out in 2025.
As a contributing editor at The Advocate, Cheves launched the “Sexy Beast” column for Advocate.com in 2016. To date, it has generated the site's best traffic on record. He now writes the "Last Call" column in print editions of Out Magazine. His bylines include VICE, Them, Document Journal, Out Traveler, and more.
Originally from the American South, he now lives in Berlin and is a member of the Berlin Queer Writers Circle.