It's tough. I was kicked to the curb by my entire family for nearly fifteen years. Teachers in high school refused to endorse me for scholarships so I couldn't go to college, and this was the 80s so there were absolutely no support groups anywhere near for queer youth. I didn't get physically attacked as I've always been a big guy, but I sometimes wished that people would have hit me coz it felt like it would have hurt less.

It sucks to know that coming out still sucks, that a kid can still put his or her entire existence at risk simply by being who they are, but it's good that days like this and plays like this exist. Change happens, but change is so slow.

That sucks WolfDaddy. I can at least grasp, on some level, hate by others but as a parent I just can't understand the parental rejection. Just no way.

While it sucks that a day like this is even remotely necessary, I'm glad that we have made at least enough progress that a day like this can happen.

{WolfDaddy}

Looks like a really powerful experience, arse_hat. Good for your community for putting that together!

Good for you! Stories like this remind me of what an easy time I have of coming out and how that is totally not always the case.

I didn't even know it was International Anti Homophobia day, and I celebrated by officating a same-sex wedding at the US Botanic Gardens, guerilla style, with about 10 people in attendance. It was fantastic.

Well, the parents probably felt rejected by their kid. So naturally they rejected him back. Parents have as much tendency to be like that as anybody else. After all, the more you put into your offspring, the more overwhelming it is to not get the desired result. Not that it's remotely right, of course. But unfortunately, parents are human like anybody else.

serena, my parents didn't feel rejection. They felt disgust and overwhelming rage.

I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it must be to be in an oppressed minority. As an English-speaking, white, hetero-male, I kind of represent the fuckers that have been in charge for a long time.

I can, however, say that I am most happy when I see signs, even small ones, that said oppression is becoming less. People do learn, albeit slowly, I think.

I am so sorry for the trials that others have been put through. It really saddens me to think that a child would feel that he disgusted his own parents, especially over something so seemingly trivial as who he chooses to love.

It does warm my heart when I see families do the opposite. Two young women in my neighborhood are a couple and run a shop together and seem to be embraced by both of their giant catholic families. Members of both of their families help out in the shop and seem to treat them like any other married couple.

Wolfdaddy, that's so sad --- not just for you, but also for your parents. It's hard to imagine that they've deprived themselves of your company, your heart and humor and sweetness and love, because of some stupid bigotry.

When I was a child and learned that "We Are Family" was a gay anthem, I thought it was just a funny, random choice of disco stridency. Then I saw this family tragedy play out a few times, saw too many friends rejected by their parents, saw them build their own chosen families of trustworthy, loving friends (and with more generosity and inclusion than their parents ever taught them), and it clicked: Oh, right. We are family. I can't even hear the song anymore without tearing up.

I can't hear "We Are Family" without thinking about Willie Stargell.