A Little Background

What I know: I am a parent of a gay teen.  My son is my joy and a gift from God; I will do everything to protect him.  He will tell you I am over protective and he is probably right.  Many times, I’ve envisioned sneaking a super spy gps tracking and audio recording device on the kid (maybe in his wallet?), but he’d probably counter act my brilliance with his own and arm himself with a gps tracking device detector disarming unit.  So, I’m forced to do things the old fashioned way and count on good parenting.  Is there such a thing? 

What I don’t know: All the rest.  Everything I talk about will be from personal experiences and I can’t claim our experiences in handling sexuality are the one best way.      

About me:  I am a heterosexual female from the Midwest (USA) and was brought up Catholic.  Very Catholic.  Fortunately, my parents raised me with the understanding that all people are created equal.  They were of course telling me there is no difference between black and white folks.  This is the only experience they had with civil rights.  The LGBT agenda did not exist (in their minds).  They had already surpassed their parent’s notions of equality, so their settlement on equal rights for black people was their badge of new age thinking.  They were headed in the right direction, but seemed to miss the message of their own argument.   My dad is extremely homophobic.  He used to tell antidotes about guys that struck him as queer and wrong while serving in Vietnam.  He would mimic them with exaggerated flamboyant gestures looking for me to agree with the absurdity of homosexuality.  Fortunately, I always referred back to their precedent setting “all are equal” statement, so the whole queer and wrong thing became mute.  Thanks mom and dad!  To date, neither of my parents acknowledges their grandson is gay.  I have to assume they know.  But, my mom, still holding out, talks about the jewelry that will be passed down to her grandson’s wife (partner).  I think we can make that happen.  They are the only people I am apprehensive about discussing this with, but I plan on changing that soon.  Time for me to follow my own advice.