What causes people to be bisexual?

BHparent
Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:25:08 +0000

I am a long-time poster here, but choose to post under a different name because of what I am going through right now with my own child, a college freshman. My child recently told my spouse and me that they are “dating” a person of the same sex. We have experienced every emotion out there. As a parent who always thought I wouldn’t have a problem with that, I have come to realize I don’t feel that way at all. No one, and I mean NO ONE can know the emotions that a parent experiences when their child tells them this unless they experience it personally. Sure, we’d all like to think we would respond in a way that would be supportive of our child, but until you hear something like that from your own child, you can NOT say how you would react, only how you would LIKE to react. I can’t accept it, at least not yet. I’m hurt, angry, sick, horrified, embarrassed, ashamed, etc. We have a great relationship with our child, which is the reason they felt comfortable to tell us in the first place, but we are really having a hard time with it. I actually dreaded having my child come home for spring break. They had just told us the week previous to that and I just didn’t feel I was ready to talk about it. During spring break, we did finally have a nice long discussion, but I’m still hoping and praying that this isn’t a lifelong thing. Our child has always been attracted to members of the opposite sex until this person came along. When I recently asked our child if they were still interested in members of the opposite sex, they said “yes” which somehow gives me hope. Like I said, I’m an emotional rollercoaster. No one can tell me how I should feel and no one can tell me they would feel differently unless they have experienced this personally.