Benny’s Story
I was 15. I was away from home spending the weekend at my dad’s (my parents got a divorce when I was younger). My mom had some friends over and she wanted to show how tech savvy she was on our home computer. It unfortunately backfired on her (and me) because she really wasn’t tech savvy. She stumbled across some content I had downloaded that made it clear I was gay. She was embarrassed to come across this in front of her friends, and I’m sure not the way she wanted to learn this about me. The next day my dad brought me home. He and my mom were both crying as they tried to understand.
As time went by, my mom understood that it wasn’t something I chose to be and that it’s okay to be gay. I knew she handled it the best that she could in the moment even knowing she really didn’t know how. We have the best relationship today. My dad and I don’t really have much of a relationship and I still don’t know if he fully accepts me being gay. He’s met some boyfriends and at least he’s stopped asking about girlfriends. Needless to say when we do talk, there isn’t talk of my love life. But at least we’re civil and if I ever needed something, he’d be there.
National Coming Out Day 2018
#HMIstory