Coming Out To Parents

When I came out to my mom in 1969, she clutched the curtains, and fell to the floor pulling them off the rails and cried out Where have I failed.

I was really tough. I was not giving an inch. Stop your histrionics. Everything you told me over my life about gay people was a lie. You don’t know the first thing what you are talking about.

I pointed out various people I had brought home to Sunday dinners whom my parents liked. I said They were gay and you did not even notice. She had a problem. She had great faith in my integrity. She also knew that gays were the worst kind of people there were. Something had to give.

A few weeks later, I was doing a public gay lib lecture. I noticed a woman in a peculiar red wig in the audience. It was my mom. To my astonishment and embarrassment, she acted as a shill. Later, when I did phone in radio shows she would call in, and give tear-jerking support for my position, and try to convince parents to support their gay children.

Dad was much easier. He said, I don’t mind you being gay, but I wish you were not so public about it. I get teased at work. My dad and I both worked for BC Hydro, the electric utility, and we were both well known. Coming out at work was easy. The boss called me in and said, We have a bit of a problem with your gay lib activities. Everyone on the floor was listening to your radio program and nobody got any work done.

I think both gays and atheists are far too willing to leave their parents alone to be bigots unaware of how clueless and evil they are.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)