Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on topics including atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and whatever crosses her mind. She is author of
The Way of the Heathen: Practicing Atheism in Everyday Life, of
Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God, of
Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, of
Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and of
Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More, and is editor of
Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for Their Clients. She has been a public speaker for many years, and many of her talks can be seen on YouTube. Her writing has appeared in multiple magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, and Skeptical Inquirer, and numerous anthologies, including
Everything You Know About God Is Wrong and three volumes of
Best American Erotica. (Any views she expresses in this blog are solely hers, and do not necessarily represent this organizations.) She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid. You can email her at gretachristina (at) gmail (dot) com, or follow her on
Facebook.
I’m an atheist who’s still in the closet for professional reasons. I worry about losing my job if my fundamentalist Christian boss knew I was an atheist.
Coming out as feminist is riskier than coming out as atheist.
I am white, as such belonging to a minority in the country where I live (Suriname), male, non-believing since 35 years and an atheist since 25.
I never had a coming out because I don’t needed one – being a non-believer and an atheist never was an issue.
Next year I will suffer from a situational depression too – my son (and only child; he will be 18) will leave for The Netherlands to continue his study. I want him to, but I already miss him at beforehand.
I’d come out as something but that would require me to first figure out WTF I am.
I guess I’ll come out as a lost cause.
I guess I’ll come out as a guy who takes a lot of erotic photos of insects.
Here are two beetles making love on a wild prickly rose in Alaska:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/sV4cOAFlF0HIlzqfhuZTO9MTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink
Hope it cheers you up a little.
-David (I tried to log in with facebook and google to post this, but I can’t get it to display my name correctly)
1. I am an atheist.
2. I am a sober alcoholic (if you hadn’t guessed).
3. I was born to love women–especially brilliant, older ones (not so relevant as I teeter into old age myself).
4. I have long-term mild depression.
5. I am currently reliving having my heart crushed to dust when I was 18.
I try to live my life ‘out’ in everything and everywhere I go. 1 and 2 seem easy. 4 and 5 don’t come up naturally. 3 is where I am still a total fuck-up.