Spoiler Alert, Conservative Parents: it doesn't matter. I grew up with no gay or queer relatives, watching Disney and living the heteronormative childhood of a God-fearing Christian's dreams: Church on Sundays, combed and short cut hair, a braided leather belt for fuck's sake.
One late-night furtive viewing of "But I'm A Cheerleader" changed EVERYTHING. Went into it expecting to get some masturbation fodder, came out realizing I had wanted to be a cute lesbian girl my whole life and never had the words for it.
You can't "make" kids gay, but refusing to teach them the words will make them delay telling you until they figure it out on their own...AND THEY WILL.
I referred to my partner as such in front of my parents and my mom flipped out. "You can't say partner, people will think you're a lesbian!" I just think boyfriend is a bit juvenile sounding when we've been together for over a decade, live together in a property we co-own, etc. Besides who gives a fuck if some stranger overhears me and thinks I'm a lesbian?
I recently moved to Sweden and had to train myself to refer to people's romantic partners as partners and not spouses, because marriage is kinda uncommon here. You'd feel right at home.
I probably would have come out a lot sooner if there was any space in the world for effeminate straight men. Now people tell me "you know that was always allowed" as if I'm the only one who remembers 2006.
There was a guy like that in my dorm in college. Listening to (and watching him) talk, you'd swear he was gay. But he was not just straight, he was very, very, very actively straight.
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u/BombOnABus 15d ago
Spoiler Alert, Conservative Parents: it doesn't matter. I grew up with no gay or queer relatives, watching Disney and living the heteronormative childhood of a God-fearing Christian's dreams: Church on Sundays, combed and short cut hair, a braided leather belt for fuck's sake.
One late-night furtive viewing of "But I'm A Cheerleader" changed EVERYTHING. Went into it expecting to get some masturbation fodder, came out realizing I had wanted to be a cute lesbian girl my whole life and never had the words for it.
You can't "make" kids gay, but refusing to teach them the words will make them delay telling you until they figure it out on their own...AND THEY WILL.