A very special moment when the 'faceless' military member of the YouTube channel Are You Surprised shows his face for the first tiime, and calls his father in Alabama to tell him that he has a gay son. [He is currently stationed in Germany.]
During the phone call, I was most impressed by the father's immediate and unconditional love for his son, gay or straight. I also suspect that the father already had an inkling that his son might be gay. Parents somehow just know these things . . .
I also know that 'coming out' to one's parents can be very diffucult. I recall that I attempted to have this conversation with my mother [my father had died when I was seven years old] for some time after I suspected / knew that I was gay, but was never able to do so.
Then I entered the military when I was 18 with that particular subject never having been discussed. I guess I sort of hoped that the 'gay' portion of my personality would just disappear of its own accord while in the military. Quite the contrary, in that rather soon after enlisting, I fell in love with Gregg, the fellow who was to be my roomate during my training at Ft. Devins, Mass. Fortunately it was mutual and we decided to spend the rest of our lives together when we were discharged form the military.
After our schooling at Ft. Devins we were sent to the National Defense Language school in Monterey, California for a year of language study. Though we had known each other for nearly a year, I finally took Gregg home to meet my mother towards the end of our language training. It was one of those fortunate experiences in that my mother and Gregg became instant friends.
On the second night home, we had gone to a Greek Restaurant and Gregg, with number of other men, was dancing a tradtional folk dance. My mother had been watching him dance, when she suddely leaned over and said to me, "I couldn't help but notice that you two are very much in love." In essence, I had just been 'outed' by my mother — and in the same breath she announced that she very much approved of my choice of a lifetime partner.
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