#11 -- My Journey Out: Thanksgiving
May 31, 2005
We had a full house staying at Mom's for a couple of days. Family was in town for Thanksgiving. In my family we rotate hosting (I've done it twice); so this year it was being hosted by my uncle at his new fiance's house. I rode over with my liberal aunt and uncle from Missouri.
Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday. It is so much simpler than Christmas because it is about eating, family, and falling asleep watching football. I was not looking forward to anything special this year, but I always enjoy Thanksgiving. At this point only my Mom, Revis, my sis, and her husband knew I was gay.
We got to the house; I had never been there before. Though I'd met the fiance, I'd never met her kids. Two of the three were there. Timothy was doing most of the cooking and had clear control over the kitchen. Hmm, I wondered. We all were sitting around munching on appetizers, drinking, and chatting. Timothy and I began this verbal dance of searching out clues about each other. When he said where he worked, I went Hmm even more. Then when his "friend" David arrived, I really went Hmm. After dinner when the neighbors came over for dessert, it was a gay male couple. Here I was at Thanksgiving with two gay couples!
My family began to leave. I was supposed to go back to Mom's with the same aunt and uncle. I told them I was staying to hang out. They looked puzzled, but left. We stayed at my uncle's and his fiance's for a couple of hours, all of us drinking, chatting, and having a good time. I then went out to the bars with Timothy and David and came home after two a.m.
The next morning my liberal aunt from Missouri came in while my Mom was making coffee.
"So, Scott was supposed to ride home with us last night, but he said he was going to stay and hang out with those guys. Tom and I talked about it on the way home. I told him that Scott had had gay friends since college, so he was probably comfortable."
"Yeah."
Long pause.
"Is Scott gay?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, okay. Well, I've wondered."
Mom and I still laugh about that day. I never expected Thanksgiving to turn out that way. So most of the rest of the family got to figure it out without my ever having to sit down and tell them.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.