Oh, I forgot to mention something. I can nearly guaruntee that even if your brothers take it well and are cool with it, they're VERY likely to subject you to an enourmous amount of teasing for a little while... Though it'll prolly be in good humor. Just a heads up so your not surprised by it or somethin... Though your family might be different from most people I know. Humor tends to be the way people handle unfamiliar situations... Aside from the other usuals, being violence and hate... But this is family, so I don't think the violence and hate will get into the equation. If it does... Run?

I'm probably one of the people that's the least qualified to answer such a question, having never really had any experience with gay guys, except one friend I have who's particularly nutty and only good in small doses.

But. I think this holds true for everyone, you have to make sure you're comfortable with what you are first. You have to like you for you, and until you're confident with it yourself, telling others might not be the best idea, except the people who will help you come to terms with who you are.

If I ever realized I was gay, I'd tell my girlfriend, and my mom, maybe some exes that I'm still friends with, people who I know who would help me find who I really am. You're probably going to have to go through a time when you have to defend yourself to some close people, and maybe even throughout the rest of your life off and on. If you're not comfortable with who you are, there will be no defence against the harsh words of others. Take the advice of Mufasa, and "Remember who you are".

It depends. It can go either way depending on who you are talking to and what their opinions are.

I have an extremely radical grandmother (who doesn't know I'm gay) that is very anti-gay. Everytime I talk to her, she has some "gay invasion" comment about how her Christianity is being imposed upon by those homosexuals (and as much as you might think I'd despise her, I love her to death. We have the most interesting conversations where I play bleeding liberal and she's the scary right wing conservative). Anyhoo, if I were to ever come out to her, I think it would be easier with the situation you described above otherwise she'd go on about how I can find Christ and be cleansed of my sins, looks up those crazy brainwashing clinics with information for my parents, etc. The more I could do to convince her that I'm happy how I am and she can't change that even if it breaks her heart, the better it would be for her in the end... I think. This would be better accomplished with just overwhelming her.

On the flip side, my parents are so amazingly tolerant and pro-gay (I got the sex talk in 5th grade where my dad told me then he'd always love regardless of who I ended up being with - man or woman), it would be better for me to take smaller steps with them. They are the type to prod me for juicy questions on my sex life, want to know this-and-that, and just in general parade me around in a very "We love our gay son" manner. And not wanting this, I haven't come out to them either.

I find both equally scary... but I feel it is pretty clear cut there is just no "single" good method to address everyone just from them.

Anyone who stops loving you because you're gay isn't worth your time, buddy. Good luck.

Sadly you cannot say your family isn't worth your time most of the time, Manjanaia
Too many years living with them you end up loving them somehow most of the times

Just because you were born to (or brought up in) a family doesn't mean you will automatically love them, nor that they will be tolerant. Some people are NOT worth the time. Thankfully, none of my own relatives are like this.

If you can come up with a way that you're comfortable telling your family about it, Elryn, then do it. Don't blurt it out in the middle of something (obviously), don't crack a joke about it and then tell them it's true (unless that's normal for you...?). Anyway, just do whatever is most comfortable for you, if you feel they ought to know. Just because a guy is blokey doesn't mean he's not going to shrug his shoulders and say something crude. Unless they're very set in their ways and structured, chances are they'll accept it fairly easily and not freak out. Let us know how it goes? You know you'll have support from us, no matter what.

Considering his parents already are ok with it, most probably his brothers will be loving and nice brothers too and nobody will make much fuss.

Just... Do it privately, choose a good place and time. Don't go in the middle of a family dinner, with everybody in there, and casually say, like my sister did at 16:
- "You know? I've decided I am going to be single mother."