Growg up wh a gay father created challeng for both my Dad & I. His journey out of the Bible Belt & closet was not easy. Most importantly though . . .
Contents:
- GROWG UP WH A GAY FATHER – CONFSNS OM A STRAIGHT SON
- HOW I ACCINTALLY FOUND OUT MY DAD IS GAY
- MY LIFE CHANGED FOREVER THE DAY I FOUND OUT MY FATHER WAS GAY
- THE GAY FATHER I NEVER KNEW
- 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
* my gay dad *
In late 1980, at a support group for gay fathers, my dad met Lnel –– the man wh whom he would spend the next 23 years. He had seemed kd of lost his new life – phg 60, recently divorced om my mother, recently out of the closet as gay man.
He asked that I march wh him, alongsi the other gay fathers and their kids, the Los Angel Pri Para. What I do remember was that someone had ma T-shirts that said "I LOVE MY GAY DAD" and I refed to wear one.
I told my dad, “I love you, but not bee you’re gay. ” The tth, though, is that I lacked the urage to stand all the way up for my father and his ras agast a homophobic and different world. I probably left my "I LOVE MY GAY DAD" T-shirt next to the box had e out of, though I might have taken home wh me and buried a drawer.
HOW I ACCINTALLY FOUND OUT MY DAD IS GAY
Pete Wilson’s office, or at the Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian and Gay dad and his hband lost a lot of iends to AIDS. Even when I was an obnox 22-year-old and wouldn’t put on a T-shirt to clare, unashamed, unembarrassed and unapologetic, that I love my gay dad.
But I knew he was gay by the time I was 7 or 8. 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. 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”!
MY LIFE CHANGED FOREVER THE DAY I FOUND OUT MY FATHER WAS GAY
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.
THE GAY FATHER I NEVER KNEW
I don’t thk anyone knew yet that my Dad was 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. 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. Realizg his sexualy and beg a gay father the late 1960s, pecially wh me a long way away, mt have been really transformative for my Dad.
MY DAD COMG OUT AS GAY CHANGED OUR LIV — AND GAVE ME THE COURAGE TO BE MYSELF
He lived and around the Oak Lawn area of Dallas (long a predomantly gay or at least gay-iendly neighborhood).
He was meetg lots of openly gay people & gog to clubs where was OK to be openly gay. Beg a gay father the 1960s.