Acceptance

Alyssa follows (subscribes to?) quite a few people on YouTube. She enjoys silly videos and watches a lot of insanity. It amuses her and it amuses me when she shares it.

She found a young woman named Amanda and started following her. She enjoys this woman’s sense of humor.

Apparently, this young woman is a lesbian. One of Alyssa’s favorite videos from Amanda is where Amanda stands on the streets of New York and comes out to strangers. Alyssa thinks it’s hysterical that Amanda tells strangers she’s gay and then asks them if they love her as much as they did before they knew she was gay.

Over the weekend, Alyssa dropped the news that when Amanda came out as gay to her parents, they kicked her out their house.

They kicked their daughter out of their house. For being gay.

I just…I can’t even begin to fathom that line of thinking. I can’t imagine anything either of my daughters could do that would make me kick them out of our house.

I mean, I tried to think of something when Alyssa and I were talking and all I could come up with was, “Well, I supposed if you killed someone and ate their face, I might be worried for your soul.”

Alyssa asked, “Why on earth would I eat their face?”

“Well,” I said, “because you were crazy, I guess. I mean, why else would you kill someone to begin with? Maybe the voices told you to do it. But even then, I’m pretty sure I’d still love you. I’d just be scared you were going to eat my face while I slept.”

I know I’m making light of a serious subject (murder is pretty awful, even without the face eating) but I can’t fathom a parent disowning their child based on who that child loves.

When Alyssa first told me about Amanda’s parents I was speechless for a few seconds. I just gaped at her.

Then I said, “But love is love…is love.”

She looked at me with wise eyes and nodded.

Several of Alyssa’s friends have come out to each other. Alyssa and her friend Tessa joke that they’re the weird straight girls.

Honestly…I do not care if my girls are straight, gay, bi or even asexual. I don’t care if they eventually decide that they don’t identify as female. I want them to be happy and to find love. I want them to be kind and to surround themselves with kind people, with people who make them happy no matter how they define their relationships with those people.

As their mother, I just can’t imagine deciding that I don’t love my children based on the gender of the people they find romantically attractive. I mean…really? How freaking sad for everyone involved.