Is it okay to NEVER come out?

[meridannight]

Far be it from me to tell you how to live your life, but living a life of disguise and lies is not what can be classified as a ''happy life''. It won't be happy. You'll live dominated by this fear that you have of being found out and that by definition can never be healthy. You will never be happy if your life is not authentic.

If you happen to find a partner who'll go along with such extensive lying and play-acting, he'll necessarily be as unhealthy as you are, so chances of pulling happiness out of that mess are slim.

You're still young at 23, and things are not quite what they seem, life does not turn out quite how you think it will. Your priorities will change along the way, and you'll keep developing and getting new experience. But it's true that some people don't make the right choices where it counts, and by the time they realize it, it might already be too late to do anything about it.

I'm not even saying that you should tell your parents. That's not the case. It's none of their business, is my opinion. But as a grown man your purpose is to live independent of your parents' authority. They will have to stop dictating (directly and indirectly) how you live your life. You have to make this life your own. What you're suggesting means exactly the opposite, succumbing to fear and betraying who you are. You can try it, and you can delude yourself that it's fine, but you'll end up miserable if you go that way.