Meet the politician who came out — to a town council

Pride events in Newfoundland and Labrador are wrapping up this week, and members of the LGBTQ community have been able to let their flags fly.

And while coming out can be a nerve-racking process for anyone, for Donovan Taplin, loved ones weren't the only folks they had to address when they started identifying publicly as gay.

Holding public office as a Wabana town councillor on Bell Island made it a uniquely difficult situation.

"I always joke that my first love wasn't a boy or a girl. It was Bell Island," Taplin said.

"I started running for town council when I was 18, and I was elected when I was 19," said Taplin, who uses "they" instead of a gender-specific pronoun.

"So when I decided to come out, I thought I had three audiences: my friends, my family, and the town.… That last audience I felt was the most terrifying."

Taplin works and lives in Toronto now, but being gay in a small East Coast town wasn't quite as comfortable.

"Obviously it wasn't easy being a closeted kid on Bell Island. There wasn't a lot of visibility. I didn't have a sense of safety to be out," they explain.

Still, Taplin decided to fight for increased visibility in their hometown as their time as a town councillor came to an end.

"During my final year on council, when I was 22, I introduced a proclamation, and that was to recognize Pride Month for the first time on Bell Island. And we were hoping to have a Pride flag fly from the town hall … for the first time."

More than just a proclamation

There was a lot riding on this proclamation. For Taplin, it represented far more than just a month of festivities.

"I was scared because I thought that if the proclamation failed — if my fellow councillors voted against the Pride proclamation — that they were in some way, at some level, also rejecting me, and the LGBT community on Bell Island at large. It was one of those moments where I thought, "'Gosh, my opinion on this community that I love might change right now, based on this vote.'"

Luckily for Taplin, it turned out that they had nothing to worry about.

"The proclamation ended up passing unanimously. Every single person — councillor, mayor, deputy mayor — voted for it.

"When I think about all those years I spent being terrified to be myself, and then to have my own coming out happen in parallel with my hometown embracing a symbol to demonstrate shifting attitudes in the community … it was pretty surreal."

'You can't wait until you're bulletproof'

Taplin said as far as coming out is concerned, safety should be a priority.

"If you think you're unsafe, and you're worried about coming out, there's a chance you're right. Most gay or queer people that believe they can't come out … that's informed by the evidence around them," they said.

"When you're on that precipice of deciding whether or not it's time for you to come out — and of course I should insert here that coming out is not a one-time event, but something you do over and over again — you have to listen to your gut and trust yourself to know if this is the time that you can come out and be safe."

Taplin said waiting too long to come out, though, can bring its own set of challenges.

"You can't wait until you're bulletproof. If I waited until every single member of my family, every friend I had, every person in my hometown was going to embrace me, I'd still be in the closet."

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