Source: Reddit
When I came out to my mother as gay (13 years ago), she handled it very poorly. Understandably so – she grew up Baptist in a small Alabama town in the 60s where there was not a lot of diversity. There were a lot of angry words between us, a lot of hurt, and it took a long time for us to repair our relationship.
While she still doesn’t like to talk a lot about homosexuality (and I’m not totally out to all of her friends to save us both the headache), she supports me wholeheartedly and treats my girlfriend like another daughter and it’s wonderful.
Tonight I overheard her on the phone talking to a friend of hers and, while the conversation was (obviously) one-sided on my end, I could piece together the situation:
Her friend found out that his child is gay and he is not happy about it. But after a few minutes, I heard my mom say, “Charlie, do you want your child to be miserable pretending to be straight or do you want her to be in a happy, loving relationship? No, we don’t necessarily get the younger generations. Things are a lot different now. But I would much rather my daughter be able to be happy and honest with herself than live a lie. [more conversation followed, but that was the best part].”
It really took me back. My mom is still really conservative around her conservative friends, and she doesn’t really speak up that often about things like this. It made me really proud of her, her growth, and our relationship. 13 years ago I wasn’t sure if I’d ever have a healthy relationship with my mother ever again, and tonight I heard her stand up for someone else’s gay daughter.
And while she couldn’t be that woman 13 years ago, she was that woman tonight. And it’s just so awesome. I love her so much.
