Josie: The way I found out about my daughter was that she went out one night and I was very angry. The next morning is when she came out and told me she was gay. And I didn’t accept it at first.
Carissa: My brother had ended up taking me out because it was going to be my Sweet Sixteen, so he wanted to show me a good time. And I met up with this girl and we ended up just hanging out, and they dropped us off in the alley the next morning and we went home and my mom, she came in and we told her some fake story. She fell for it a little bit and we thought we were all good but then my sister came and she went inside and told my mom what really had happened. I guess it was her friend that I had ended up being with that night. Then my mom came out there and asked if she could talk to me. She sat down at the table and she asked me if what my sister had told her was true. I told her that it was true and she went crazy from there. She got all mad.
Josie: I was really angry. Throwing plates and telling her I disowned her and it was overwhelming thinking that my daughter’s not going to heaven, she’s going to die with AIDS, and all this other stuff that people put into your brain and you just don’t know how to accept it. And for people to say, “Well, what are you going to do? How are you going to change her?” I was confused and when I started telling my friend all this, he said, “You can’t change her, she’s who she is and God made everybody different.” I’m like, “Yeah, I know God made everybody different, but she’s my daughter, you know?!” We just talked about it for a long time. It was just really hurtful at the time. I just love my daughter, no matter what. And right now, she’s going through a lot with her dad and it hurts. When people put your kids down, no matter what they are, they’re still my kids, you know? And seeing the tough times that she’s been going through because of her being gay, it hurts but I just support her and I’m behind her and I tell her “You know, things are going to work out. You be who you are. Don’t pretend that you’re something else.” And that’s how we worked it out.
Carissa: It brought us a lot closer too, because we didn’t really talk as much and when she became more immune to it, it brought us closer, I’d go to her talk instead of just a friend or something. And I just started talking to her. It brought us a lot closer.
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