My parents took me coming out very poorly. I was a senior in high school and it was a mess. They tried to kick me out and then rescinded that when my best friend’s family immediately offered to take me in. Then, I got stuck having to go to “therapy” sessions with their fundamentalist preacher. This was on top of my mom being unmediated for bipolar disorder and directing all her ire at me. So, we really didn’t talk about me being a lesbian at all throughout my teens and early 20s. It was a kind of don’t ask don’t tell arrangement.

When I met my now-fiancée, I knew she was the one. I sat my parents down and essentially said, “you have to get over it and accept her or you won’t see me because I’m not hiding her.” The first time they met I was super nervous. We were touring a fancy old home where my fiancée and I live. We went over the initial awkward introductions and then got started on the tour. There was a family where one of their kids had a leash in the group. So, my mom turns to my partner and says, “Did Jules tell you she was a leash child? She was constantly trying to escape and climb things.”

It’s been going well since then.