Parent of Gay Teens

astrophysicsmom
Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:16:29 +0000

I agree w/ all who have advised you to talk to your son in a setting that will be easiest to talk in (lots of times those talking in the car on a road trip have yielded some of the deepest conversations on touchiest topics for us)… I imagine that while your son feels that it isn’t any of your business, having you accept him and get it finally “out” in the open with him will remove a huge weight from his shoulders. I know that 2 close adult friends described the huge relief they felt in telling their adult friends who have known them for years, especially when the response back was that it didn’t change the friendship and all the support was there for them. One of our friends told us via an email to my husband. It started “there’s something I need to tell you.” We were SO RELIEVED to find out what it was he was telling him. We were on the phone immediately with him, laughing, telling him that he’d scared the crap out of us…and we’d pictured all these horrible things–and how relieved we were to find out that it was “only” that he was gay!

p.s. your son must really trust and respect the English teacher—if he turned it in, he probably assumed she had read it. I think if he needs her/him? as extra support, that’s fine for him, but I think this is something you can do on your own, with the support of outside groups (as other posters have mentioned). I don’t think you need to bring in the school folks before you talk to your son, and he may resent it if you did.