My folks rock

When I meet new people, and we’re sitting on buses for days on end, we usually get to the ‘gay history’ questions. I get the typical, ‘when did you know you were gay’ and things like that, and I also always get, ‘how do your parents handle it?’ which I think is an interesting way to phrase it, using the word ‘handle,’ as if to ask, ‘how do your parents handle your heroin addiction/ propensity to alcoholism and violence / extreme bad smells…’ or things like that. As if its something they have to handle or deal with it. Below is an email from my motha… word.

>>This morning ten of us from Love Makes a Family met with Nickerson [Senator in CT] who has voted for gay rights in the past but most recently voted against giving the equal rights which civil marriage (as opposed to civil unions) guarantees. He was a good listener and I had the feeling that perhaps he was hearing us. Certainly hearing the personal stories of human beings is more powerful than just debating and demonstrating. Dad was particularly eloquent asking, in essence, what would you do to make the world a fairer place if your child was gay? (Implication was of course that he wouldn't have voted for DOMA and against civil marriage.) So, one step at a time.............<<

I don’t think you can ask for a better way of ‘handling’ my queer nature.