Mother of gay son
What PRIDE Month Means to a Mom
A Mom&#;s Perspective of Pride
For me, PRIDE Month is a time to reflect on a journey that I take as the mom of a gay son. Trust me, it is a journey like no other.
The journey began the day my child came to me and shared a deeply held adj that he had attempted to hide for his entire life. I felt shocked at first. Shocked that there could be something so BIG that I didn’t know about my possess child. I interact with him every day, I lived with this person, I raised him, I thought I knew every… single… thing there was to know and then BAM, he tells me he is gay. The initial shock hit enjoy a freight train.
Soon, the shock subsided. It happened rather fast. Next came remorse. Not remorse that he is gay, that part changes nothing of my love for my child; but remorse for all the years that I didn’t know. How much pain had he endured all those years? Was he fighting it? Was he praying that God would change him? Did he think it would change my love for him? My beautiful amazing son that God himself made exactly as he was, was he feeling that I might
Jewish Mothers &#; Gay Sons
*Because my gay son does not verb safe enough to be completely &#;out,&#; I have used a pseudonym. I have changed the names of my family members as wel. I very much regret this necessity.
It is , and my younger son, David, is seven. He is standing at my dresser, digging through his favorite drawer of my jewelry box. He has extracted several ropes of fake pearls and a Venetian glass necklace that my mother gave me when I was a little girl. Looping them around his neck, he is peering at himself in the mirror.
As I watch him, something goes off in my head. David often plays with my jewelry. So did his older brother, Jeffrey, when he was little. But certainly not past the age of, utter , four. And never the way David is now doing, lovingly stroking the glass beads and holding them up to view.
There had always been something other about David, things that I&#;d been picking up for the past few years. Like the fact that he didn&#;t attach out with packs of basketball-playing boys as his older brother did, but preferred the company of little girls. &#
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Perhaps it is not surprising that mothers and their gay sons often describe their relationships as close. Compared to fathers, mothers typically have an advantage whereby they usually interact more with their children. However, being gay might be a factor that makes some mothers and sons even closer. This was found to be true for many of the mothers and sons I interviewed for the study described in the book: Coming Out, Coming Home: Helping Families Adjust to a Gay or Lesbian Child ().
As stated by M.C. (25):
My mother and I can best be described as having a friendship as well as a family relationship. We get along very adequately. We share a lot of the same interests. We engage Scrabble togetherWe watch political shows together, like Hardball. We enjoy going on vacations. We give some of the same tastes in food-some disagreements here and there, but we joke around. She was very caring and still is a very loving mother. I would say it is almost like a friendship between us.
His mother, Charlotte, a legal secretary, would agree: Editor’s note: This piece contains homophobic language and a discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. When children came out as gay to their parents in the s, their families often wrote them off as gone. Even if parents continued to support their LGBTQ kids, there was no external support for creating a safe, loving environment for them. But love, even in the face of societal adversity, is a powerful tool. And one mother’s love for her gay son set a domino effect in motion that continues to this day. Morty Manford was an early member of the Gay Activists Alliance, and his mother, Jeanne Manford, is credited as one of the founding members of PFLAG, which originally stood for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. One night in April , New York City’s Inner Circle dinner was in packed swing. Morty Manford was in attendance with other gay activists han
M. C. and I have been especiall How a mother's love, rage and dedication to her gay son became a political coerce in the early s