Twenty-two years ago, I asked my dad if he was gay. Then he was gone.

Contents:

• HOW I ACCINTALLY FOUND OUT MY DAD IS GAY
• MY DAD COMG OUT AS GAY CHANGED OUR LIV — AND GAVE ME THE COURAGE TO BE MYSELF
• GROWG UP WH A GAY FATHER – CONFSNS OM A STRAIGHT SON
• THE GAY FATHER I NEVER KNEW
• IM GAY AND IM ATTRACTED TO MY FATHER..
• AFTER 20 YEARS OF MARRIAGE, MY DAD CAME OUT AS GAY
• I'M 57 YEARS OLD AND MY FATHER JT DISOWNED ME FOR BEG GAY

HOW I ACCINTALLY FOUND OUT MY DAD IS GAY

My brother picked up the word for "gay" – a word my dad repeated several tim durg that that pot, my parents had told they had problems their marriage, but a few months later, when I was around ne years old, we still went on our annual fay summer holiday to France. Until, out of nowhere, my brother sudnly asked, "Dad, are you gay?

MY DAD COMG OUT AS GAY CHANGED OUR LIV — AND GAVE ME THE COURAGE TO BE MYSELF

"There aren't a lot of gay people out there wh a wife and children, " he told me.

I once tagged along wh him to his favoure gay bar, where I met all the iends he's ma there over the years. I'm gay.

I n't remember exactly what I unrstood of the word "gay" at that pot my life, but whether me om hearg my classmat e to disparage our peers or the nate unrstandg that s existence our life meant plete and utter change to our fay dynamic, I stantly registered the word as synonymo wh "bad. The word "gay" was not a taboo word our hoe.

GROWG UP WH A GAY FATHER – CONFSNS OM A STRAIGHT SON

I never hated to pull asi even the tought bulli after hearg them make fun of our gay classmat to give them a piece of my md, and I preached csantly about why the f-word should be dropped om everyone's vobulari anytime was uttered my prence.

We would se together as adults and share stori om our childhoods about our gay parents that others wouldn't unrstand. It's te that children of gay adults tend to grow up quicker than most bee we e to know a different world at an early age that some adults are not yet able to fully prehend. But I knew he was gay by the time I was 7 or 8.

THE GAY FATHER I NEVER KNEW

So this is my story of growg up wh a gay father. Growg up wh a gay father, particularly one who was aaid to e out, prented challeng our abily to get emotnally close. I don’t rell a time when I didn’t know my Dad was gay.

IM GAY AND IM ATTRACTED TO MY FATHER..

From my earlit memori of my Dad around age 5, I thk I always knew my dad was gay.

Th I never had that aha moment of realizg “I have a gay father”!

To hear both of them tell , my Dad beg gay wasn’t a factor the spl. How my Dad me to terms wh beg gay. I don’t thk anyone knew yet that my Dad was gay.

AFTER 20 YEARS OF MARRIAGE, MY DAD CAME OUT AS GAY

After all, he was the son of a Baptist Preacher and there would not have been much tolerance the 1940’s or 50’s for him to e out as gay.

I'M 57 YEARS OLD AND MY FATHER JT DISOWNED ME FOR BEG GAY

In talkg to both of them over the years, they both claim they had no ia my Dad was gay. In retrospect, the fact that he was a cheerlear his bt iend was a male hairdrser (who was openly gay) that my Uncle Buddy nicknamed him “Percy” (which my Dad hated) and that my Dad went on to open a home furnishgs store might have been a clue.