I was living in my parent’s house in the pleasant lifestyle of suburbia with all the other little happy families.

When I was dating my first boyfriend, every time he would come over to my house, we would just chill and hang out for a little while. When he had to leave, I would walk him out to his car and give him a hug. He would then step in as I would bend over and give him a kiss, and then he would leave.

Apparently our neighbors had nothing better to do then stare at me from a distance, because after they started seeing us, they would ignore my parents more often and give them dirty looks. My mom for the life of her couldn’t figure out why they were doing that, so she decided to become like everyone else and spy on me from a distance one time when my boyfriend left. After I did my typical routine, I came inside and then went to my room. Two minutes later, my mom bursts into my room and demanded that I do my “business” indoors so that the neighbors couldn’t see. Not only was I utterly mortified to find out that my mom was staring at me from a distance, who has never had to do so before and has never had a reason to doubt my trust, I come to find out that she cared more about what the neighbors, whom she never says more than two words to probably once every 2 months, thought of her more than my own well-being. She had never before shown any discontent for my sexuality, but then again, that was the first time she realized that she wasn’t really okay with it like she let on, because she actually had to deal with the “consequences” of having a gay son as she put it.

Not only did I tell her that she was full of it, my sisters told her as well. Five minutes after our fight, I called and told my boyfriend about it. After he found out, I made a point to kiss him in public whenever we felt like it, not having a care in the world about what others said about me, or us for that matter. Every time someone had the nerve to say something, I would always just flash them a smile, and go about my merry way. Kill them with kindness, that’s what I always say.