In Canada and the USA, Thanksgiving is the first holiday in the school year that's big enough of a deal that it warrants going home to see the family. It also so happens that college is when a whole lot of GLBT folk experiment and come out of the closet, in my experience. Thanksgiving gets everyone together in one place so you can easily hold a little speech or something, so a lot of people think coming out on Thanksgiving would be easier than coming out to every person individually.
This is a bad idea.
Some reasons why coming out on Thanksgiving could make it even harder:
- Thanksgiving is a stressful time for the people organizing the meal. Tempers could be short, or they could resent you for taking focus away from their hard work. It's impolite.
- It's the first holiday of the school year. You don't know for sure how much longer you'll be in college; do you know how many students drop after their first year? If your family doesn't accept you right away, you're best to go back to college and give them some brooding time. Dropping out right after coming out won't give them that.
- Getting the courage to talk to so many people at once will probably scare you more than you think. If you don't chicken out, you could get flustered and fail to explain yourself properly. If your family has homophobic members that are likely to grill you, this is their cue to get you when you're down.
- If you're still financially dependent on them, as most first-year college kids are, wait until it's inevitable or until you become truly independent.
I think coming out on Thanksgiving is a bad idea, and I'm not the only one.