I had to share this, because it made me so proud.

For back-story, my Mother was born in 1952, and raised in a household that used the "N" word liberally. It took her all of eleven years to see how horrid that was. When she realized that she'd used a bad word for people, she instantly ran outside and threw her after-school snack of milk and cookies on the ground because she knew she "didn't deserve them."


Now, on to what she said to me just now.

We were discussing the clusterfuck of the YA anthology not allowing a G-rated male/male story to be printed, as well as the high suicide rate of gay teens. She was absolutely livid, and said to me:

"Those stories are necessary. They are NECESSARY!".

I know that this is how the entire world should be, but hearing my fifty-nine-in-two-days Mother so vehemently defend the rights of the GLBT community made me so proud I choked up. Her voice was so strong it was vicious.

When I stop to think about the queer teens that can't even discuss their sexuality with their thirty-something parents, a part of me is always floored. Mom will be sixty in a year, and she accepted me as bisexual when I came out to her seven years ago. The "worst" that occurred in that conversation was her asking if I would still have the children I planned for if my spouse was a woman. Matching genitalia means nothing to her, she wants the grandbabies she was promised, by golly!

Take that, homophobia!