A growing coaching business is charging middle-aged and older women hundreds of dollars for help coming out as lesbian, often after decades of marriage to men and raising children, according to a New York Times report.
Anne-Marie Zanzal, who calls herself a “coming out coach,” charges $400 for a private online membership aimed at “late-blooming” women working through what she describes as “sexual identity transitions.” She also runs a 16-week program called “This Authentic Life,” which includes live group coaching, one-on-one sessions, and access to an online community called “Authentically Us.” Other offerings include $150 one-hour “clarity calls” and a $77 self-paced course titled “Maybe I am Not Straight.”
Zanzal holds a master’s degree in divinity from Yale Divinity School and started the business in 2018. She came out herself at age 52, after being married to a man for nearly 30 years and raising four children with him.
“I help women come home to themselves — with clarity, self-kindness, and community — so they can live authentically without abandoning the lives and relationships that matter to them,” Zanzal writes on her coaching website. She adds: “That is why I built this work. Not because I have a degree in it — though I do … But because I lived it, in the dark, for a very long time.”
Her website also tells prospective clients: “It is not too late, and you are not too late. Come as you are, and let us walk this part of the road together.” One testimonial posted on the site reads: “She helped me see that leaving my marriage wasn’t selfish. It was honest. And my kids are better for it.”
Inside the sessions
During group meetings, participants share personal updates with Zanzal and one another. In one example described in the Times profile published Wednesday, a woman discussed how she planned to tell her son she was a lesbian over a beer.
One client, identified only as Shelly, told the Times she feared coming out would disrupt what she called a “perfectly good” family dynamic. She said Zanzal helped her see that any unhappiness her children felt was “likely to fade with time and be only a part of their story,” while her own pain could become permanent if she kept concealing her identity.
Reaction
Podcast host Ben Ferguson criticized the business model in a statement to Fox News Digital, calling the messaging “outrageous.”
“What’s especially outrageous is the suggestion that a mother’s unhappiness is permanent, but her children’s pain will somehow just fade away. Children aren’t disposable characters in their parents’ journey of self-discovery. Marriage involves commitment, and parenting requires sacrifice,” Ferguson said.
He also questioned the financial structure of the coaching services. “This isn’t about being gay or straight,” he said. “It’s about charging people hundreds of dollars to navigate decisions that could tear their families apart, with seemingly zero accountability for the damage left behind. That’s not compassion or empowerment. That’s opportunism disguised as counseling.”
Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff offered a different view, framing Zanzal’s business as part of a broader cultural shift.
“There is so much more freedom and language around sexuality and what makes a modern relationship that it isn’t surprising older women are looking at that and realizing they never had space to ask some of these deep questions of themselves,” Shroff said.
Data on how common late-life coming-out is remains limited. A 2024 Gallup survey found that just 1% of LGBTQ+ women come out at 50 or older, even as a separate recent study found the share of teenage girls identifying as lesbian or bisexual has dropped sharply over the past four years.
Zanzal did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
