Re: Blame the parents
Glad you stopped by – always nice to see new faces.
Well, you’re sort-of right in guessing my location – just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. An island of liberal attitudes surrounded by a sea of rednecks (they’re the ones that kept Jesse Helms in office for so long). Though it’s worthy of note that I experienced far more overt hostility in the few years I lived in rural and suburban Illinois than I ever saw here.
I agree to a degree that children reflect their parents attitudes (remembered from biology: progeny recapitulates ontongeny 🙂 if only because if the child expresses opinions to which the parent objects, the parent will correct them. Likewise, if they say something the parent agrees with, reward (or at least lack of correction) is in order. So even though the kid’s parents are cordial when we see them, I suspect their true feelings may be otherwise.
The other part of it is sheer peer pressure. “Gay” to a child that age is “different” and we all know how well “different” is accepted in those social circles. It’s the nature of the beasts, if you will.
All of that aside, though, I don’t really feel too upset about the whole thing. Why? Because I live my life to make me and mine happy, not them. They can call me names, make nasty faces, or whatever and it does not and will not impact my life one bit. They are not important to me, nor do I value their opinion, nor do I need their approval. That last sentence took many years for me to get through my head, by the way, and it’s still a hell of a lot easier to abide by in theory than in practice. It makes the difficult times much easier, though.