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rfmcdonaldThe recent Time cover story on GLBT teens is available in its entirety here. Reading it, and even adjusting for the perhaps too-rosy portrait, I'm somewhat envious of how some of my younger counterparts were able to come out at a much earlier date, with little or no fuss.
Soon after I came close to recognizing my sexual orientation, at the age of 17, I was travelling with my parents and sister in Nova Scotia. We were at dinner when they were joking about PEI's first gay pride parade, in the expected terms. I felt vaguely uncomfortable, as if an injustice was being committed and I was somehow at risk. When I came to a full realization five years later, I'd conveniently managed to forget this. Hence, my surprise when said three relatives reacted badly.
It would have been nice to come out early, but I think it's for the best that I discovered how, when it came down to it, I couldn't count on my immediate family when I was nominally an adult and had an actual support network to fall back on. I seriously doubt I'd have been at all able to handle them when I was 17 and just entering that black summer of 1997.
I wonder if Andrew Holleran knew that he had happened upon a universal principle when he wrote in his 1988 essay "Trust" that trust was incompatible with life, or at least unconditional trust and a pleasant life.
Soon after I came close to recognizing my sexual orientation, at the age of 17, I was travelling with my parents and sister in Nova Scotia. We were at dinner when they were joking about PEI's first gay pride parade, in the expected terms. I felt vaguely uncomfortable, as if an injustice was being committed and I was somehow at risk. When I came to a full realization five years later, I'd conveniently managed to forget this. Hence, my surprise when said three relatives reacted badly.
It would have been nice to come out early, but I think it's for the best that I discovered how, when it came down to it, I couldn't count on my immediate family when I was nominally an adult and had an actual support network to fall back on. I seriously doubt I'd have been at all able to handle them when I was 17 and just entering that black summer of 1997.
I wonder if Andrew Holleran knew that he had happened upon a universal principle when he wrote in his 1988 essay "Trust" that trust was incompatible with life, or at least unconditional trust and a pleasant life.
