The year: 1999, Prince’s song replays in my head each month as we approach Y2K…as it probably plagued most people. I was preparing to give birth to my determined daughter, who would join her two brothers. It’s safe to say as I geared up to deliver, I did not extrapolate into the future to consider whether my kids would be gay, much less what percentage of my kids would be gay. I envisioned instead, my sweet family, our portraits and memories playing out over the years, having no idea what the future held and truthfully, not caring because I was in love with the present.
Rewind further to 1991, and my high school offering a support group to gay teens, which was to remain an underground secret. As a feature editor for the newspaper, I arranged through the school nurse to meet with and interview one of their members confidentially. On the date of the interview, I waited in a small office for the mysterious interviewee to arrive. Then she walked through the door…a real lesbian. I had never met one. A lovely person all-around, I remember.
And so goes the extent of my LGBTQ experience for the next twenty years and change, unless you count a sprinkling in of a gay relatives. People who were an acceptable outlier to my conservative circle.
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My son came out to me the day after the Ian Thorpe interview. We were having coffee in the food court of a major Westfield shopping centre when he pretty much blurted it out. I had about 5 minutes of processing and that was it. He was still my son and nothing had changed. I told him I loved him. I also learned that his good friend was actually his partner.
I read this article 3 times and I just find the reaction of the writer to be OTT. Why the need for counselling? What has changed in the writers life due to her children being gay? I did have a short discussion with my son on sexual health, but they are more savvy about this stuff than we ever were. Life goes on.
What a lovely response, I too would only want my son or daughter to be happy.
Whatever sex that would give my child the most happiness is of course the right sex
Any parent who thinks differently because of sex has weird priorities
In My Humble Opinion :)