2014: A conversation with my father
I walked with my father to the store in the rain.
“So…” my dad said. “I heard that you were gay.”
“I am,” I said as I moved from underneath his umbrella.
“Well, you know you are going to hell, right?”
I paused, getting drenched in the rain.
“And who are you to be the judge of that?” I said.
“I ain’t nobody’s judge. But you know that your religion…” he went on.
“Well maybe that religion isn’t for me,” I said as the rain attempted to cool the tension between us.
“Why do you like guys anyway? Why do you like something that doesn’t fit?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it doesn’t fit? What can you do with two penises anyways?”
“I just know it feels right for me”
“Well, I think you were conditioned to do this. Did you get raped as a little boy and didn’t say anything about it?”
It was then that I turned around and went back home.
And when one dares to be brave,
Suddenly we see that love costs all we are
And all we’ll ever be.-Maya Angelou
