Coming out help at hand

A new e-book designed to help young people come to terms with their sexuality has been released.
Don’t Tell Your Father: Conversations About Coming Out is a collection of stories gathered by Melbourne-based writer and former Perth commercial radio broadcaster Gavin Miller.

Miller said he hopes that by hearing the coming-out stories of others, young people coming to terms with their own sexuality may find support when they need it most.

“This is definitely something I would have benefited from when I was coming out,” Miller told the Star Observer.

“It would have been great to hear other people going through the same things.”

The tales Miller uses are the coming-out stories of his circle of friends, including gay, lesbian, trans and drag acquaintances.

“The idea for the book really started from sitting around with friends and talking about how they told their parents, and I found every time I had those conversations, they were always so interesting,” Miller said.

“You can have a room full of people and everyone has their own unique story.

“I thought, if I’m interested in this, other people will be too.”

Miller said if he writes a sequel, it will involve more stories from women.

“At the time I didn’t really know many lesbians, but now I do and I’m living with some lesbians at the moment so it’d be great to have a look at their experiences.”

Miller has taken the route of self-publishing online after being rejected by Penguin.

“They said they didn’t think young people would go into a bookstore and take a book like this to the counter and buy it if they were struggling with their sexuality.

“But one of the great things about it being available online instead is that it can be downloaded discreetly and easily, so it really opens up the book to a whole new audience.”

Miller has also just finished co-authoring an autobiography of crude comic Kevin Bloody Wilson, who’s had some unfriendly things to say about lesbians in the past.

Miller admits the two books are poles apart.

“It’s completely different and I like that I can write for completely different audiences,” he said.

“He’s actually a gentle guy and not like the person you see on stage.”

info: Don’t Tell Your Father: Conversations About Coming Out is available at www.Amazon.com as a Kindle e-book.