A great story. As a parent I just can't wrap my head around parents who can't support a gay child.

I'm sorry, that should have said, "Weld and Celluci", not "Weld and Swift." Although I was a recent enough transplant to NY when Swift came into office that I took what she did to my Commonwealth very personally indeed.

And I agree with you, arse_hat, even if my own story wasn't particularly uplifting. It's been very interesting to watch politicians grapple with their children's homosexuality over the last few years in this country -- it's said a lot to me about who these people are, regardless of their party affiliations.

Lassie, your picture link is busted!

Indeed it is! Sorry about that -- here's what I hope is a working link.

Sorry Lassie, I got distracted. I have fixed the original link.

One of the things I always loved about my mother is that she once told me, "I don't care if you bring home a black woman (keep in mind that my mother was of a generation still unaccustomed to interracial dating), we will welcome her into the family." My mother thought I was a closeted lesbian for many years, and this was her way to encourage me to come out.

And what I loved even more was that she was not "relieved" to find out I was, indeed, straight. That spoke volumes about her acceptance of other people.

Actually, the best coming out story I ever heard was actually on a talk show. The son was all anxious about telling his father, so he called him up at 3am and said "I'm gay." The father's answer? "This couldn't have waited till morning?"

There's a dude on an even keel.

heh - I had the reverse happen to me. It took me so long to have a girlfriend (not until my freshman year of college) that my family thought I WAS gay.

They took the news well, although there was a little bit of disappointment. To this day, I think my family still hopes I'll bring home a nice guy who's a doctor or famous in some way and we'll settle down.

I wish all coming out stories had such a happy ending.

When I came out as bisexual to my mum, she came back with, "Oh, I thought you were asexual." Not even close, Mum.