Originally posted by funnybebe78
right on.. I think parents who does not accept the kid for bein gay or lesbian is damn closed minded end of discussion.
That's true, yet very sad.
My mother is a lesbian, and she came out of the closet to my grandparents during a heated argument over my parents' marriage status at the time.
My grandmother was a bit hesitant in the beginning for a very short time, but she accepted my mother anyway. She gradually learned to accept it fully over time. To this day, my mother and grandmother are very close.
In the case of my grandfather, he was the most vocal in protesting her sexuality. I saw the way he reacted while I was peeking around the corner to watch the argument as my hearing brother was providing the dialogue as an "interpreter." (My mother had already come out to my father, younger brother, and me quite a while before that.) My grandfather's reaction subtly sickened me at the time, because he always the "good guy" in my eyes while growing up.
Up to the day of my grandfather's death (after a few years after the "shocking" announcement my mother made,) I was sifting through his things and running down memory lane. At one point, I came across a few small, framed pictures of my mother while she was growing up. They were all stuffed into an old cigar box, not where they originally were before my mother's coming out.
As I grew up, I remembered that these particular pictures were in the rooms my grandfather occupied most of the time. At that point... I realized that he had never accepted my mother as she really was. It really hit me hard and it hurt me, as a son and grandson.
In the light of my personal experience, I can imagine the pain that closed-minded parents can inflict upon their gay offspring. Bigotry is unacceptable under any circumstances - on the family member's behalf.