Coming Out to Your Parents - Real Life or Hypothetical

im lucky enough to have an open minded mum...so when i told her about an alternative lifestyle ive chosen she said she doesnt mind as long as its between 2 consenting adults... i know many others are not so lucky

This is going to sound really insensitive (because it is:P), but your mother has a lot of problems that don't just stem from her daughter being gay. And whomever her therapist is needs a bit of counseling, as well. Sheese! I'm straight, but it wouldn't bother me if I had a child who was gay. I certainly wouldn't have a nervous breakdown over it. I'd be more upset that I had a child, at all, because I don't want children. (But that's a topic for another discussion.) :P If I were gay, I think my parents would be well aware of it by the time I was an adolescent, at the very least. My grandparents (who raised me) certainly were aware by the time I was 4 that I was heterosexual because I fell in love with Paul McCartney the moment I set eyes on him, when I was 4 years old. I was always upfront (with anyone) about my crushes while growing up. That aspect of my personality wouldn't have changed, whether I was gay or not. So, I don't think if I were gay my coming out would be a surprise, and therefore not so difficult. Homosexuality is a naturally occurring variant. It occurs in nature in animals and has always been here. In other cultures and times, it was accepted as the norm. Unfortunately, just because our society is modern doesn't mean that it's enlightened. On the contrary. So many accepted beliefs today are so fundamentally just plain stupid, and it seems there's a never-ending supply of ignorant people who swallow anything they're told without putting any analytical thought to it. Gay or straight, people are people and should always be treated with dignity and differences should be tolerated and respected. And the day that happens all over the world, pigs will fly. :P

reaL LIFE

I was very, very lucky. I didn't come out to my parents until I was in my early twenties. I really wasn't sure how to go about it, or how they'd feel. But as it turned out, they'd already figured it out. They didn't care one way or another. My dad's been really supportive and my mother just doesn't care one way or another. As long as I'm happy, they don't care what I do with my life. As long as I'm not hurting myself, of course. I know I'm very lucky to have a family who doesn't care that I'm gay, and who accepted me so easily. I really wish everyone was as lucky as I've been.