My mom is a
lesbian.
I found this out at age 23, although I knew it at age 22. It all started with a phone call. I was sitting in my
barracks (I was in the army at the time), when the phone rang. It was my
brother. My brother never calls me, ever. My first thought was that someone in the
family had died. "Mom Left", he said.
"What?!?!"
"She moved out, she left, she's moved into her own
apartment"
I couldn't believe it, I'd always thought that my parents had the most solid
marriage I could
fathom. The fact was that a lot can happen in three and a half years. I hadn't been home, I hadn't seen it coming. I didn't talk to my mom for almost a year. Oh, she'd call me. I'd not say much and get off the
phone as quickly as possible. You see I was due out of
the service that year, just a few months prior to my parent's 25th
wedding anniversary. I'd been saving up, planning to rent a hall, have the thing catered, it was a big deal to me, and my way of thanking them for raising me so well.
So much for the
planning, I went through the
money I saved quickly, drinking myself
stupid for an entire month, I lived in
extravagance, for about a week, then it was all gone. I got out of the
army, and stayed with my father. Sometime after that, before I got my first "
civilian job" I met with my mother again. I asked her why. She couldn't give me a real answer.
Slowly I re-built a
relationship with my mother, I got a job and got my own apartment. My life went on. I'd met some of my mom's "new friends" and kind of pieced things together, I knew then, but I knew she wasn't ready to tell me. My father was
homophobic, my brother was an
unknown factor, she had know way of knowing that I wouldn't have a problem with it.
She'd come over to visit for a while, I made
tea, and was relating a story about the previous night. I had been out at the bar and met a small group of people, two guys and a girl, I was being hit on by both the girl and one of the guys, I found it amusing and
flattering at the same time. I was laughing about it with my mom and I think that's when she realized that I was cool about it, and she told me. Now I had this
secret that I couldn't share with my brother or my father, but at least she felt she could trust me enough to tell me.
I let her take her time telling the rest of the family, which she did eventually. I've come to accept it, and it's been
pretty cool. When I'm out with my mom I can comment on the
attractive women around me and get her input as well. Her
partner (whom she is living with) is cool too, and I've come to think of her as a
friend. I've accepted it, and am casual about it. I guess in my head there's nothing wrong with it, it's just the way things are. I don't make an effort to hide it. Of course when people hear it the some times need an
explanation. I get questions like?
"Your, mom's a lesbian? Do you have a father?"
"no, I'm what happens when you don't wash your sex toys often enough"