Welcome to the Family
Four years ago Amanda* met Julie at a club in San Francisco. It was love at first sight, though they were both cautious and went through a formal “Let’s see […]
Tag Archives: Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
‘Revolutionary’: A 250-year-old story of gender rebellion
In September 2015, Alex Myers came to the Southwest Harbor Public Library in Maine to talk about his first novel, Revolutionary (Simon & Schuster, 2014). If the advance publicity for […]
In Gay Families and Straight Families Alike, Being a Grandparent Is Wonderful
I smiled at the magazine cover: two modishly clad men holding an infant in a pink dress. I could hardly believe that Architectural Digest, the upscale decorating bible of the […]
“Coming Out” About Having a Gay Child
I trust that I was never a homophobe. My parents had gay friends. Two highly respected members of my family were gay and my mother took great pain to tell […]
Swan Lake and Memories: Letter to My Son on What Would Have Been His 59th Birthday
David, Last month Russia’s premier ballet company, the Mariinsky, came to town to perform at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Their program included Swan Lake. I am such a dance […]
Two Gay Men and a Baby
“All my life Eileen, my mom, always told me to do what I had to do, not what I wanted to do.” In spite of this principled attitude, Eileen got […]
World AIDS Day: December 1, 2014
The AIDS epidemic has been with us for 33 years and has killed about 36 million people. Like Ebola it is still “raging,” and it is a much bigger medical […]
Our son told us he is gay. Will he get AIDS?
If your son is mature you have little to worry about. Most gay men practice “safe sex,” i.e. they wear a condom that prevents the actual transfer of semen and […]
I am deeply religious. How do I reconcile my faith with my child being gay?
Rona never knew that Jamie, the favorite of her four sons, was gay. When he came out she was crushed. Within six months Jamie died of HIV/AIDS. Being gay was […]
Gay Pride Day
I attended my first gay pride parade twenty-six years ago in San Francisco. My companions included my son David and three of his pals: Robert, Dave, and Frank. David cross-dressed from the […]
The Gay World as Navigated by a Straight Mom 