Advice on coming out to a large group of people?
Hello, I have been out as NB to most of my friends for some time now, and at the beginning of this year finally chose a name I like. For the last while, I've been slowly coming out to friends with my new name, but have reached a bit of a difficult point.
Up until now, coming out and changing my name has been relatively easy, because I've been able to do it in small groups of people, a few at a time. However, some of my close friends I know from a uni society I'm in. I get on well with them all, but am only really close with a few. I would like to come out to these friends, but don't want to be in the awkward situation where they're using my new name in a small group, but not around people who aren't part of that group. We generally spend time together as part of the bigger group, so I think it would be best to come out with my new name to everyone at once.
My problem is that I'm very unsure of how to go about this. For anyone who's been in a similar situation, is there any method that worked well for you? Currently the only ways I can think of are making a big announcement in the group chat (which sounds kind of awful ngl), or telling a few people and letting it spread (which sounds better but I don't want to be unclear about this or pass off the responsibility onto others). I also want to make it very clear why I'm changing my name, as I feel this is a good opportunity to make people clear on pronouns and gendered terms as well. Some people in the group are already aware that I'm nonbinary, but to my knowledge not everyone is.
Thanks in advance for any answers or advice!
Posted Jun 10, 2026, 4:23 PM UTC