Father, Help Your Daughter!

Yoy have I been tired today. Don't even know why. But oh well, the day is almost over. Blogger has been fucky all day, but Kimmy found a way around it all. *three cheers*

Glad to see some people found my Home Economics posts as "enlightening" and "inspiring" as I did. You just have to laugh really. I have to tell you that on the days when my self-esteem is running low I look back at things like that and see how much I have overcome to become the person I am today and it really gives me a boost. I'm so much happier and so much less concerned about how other people judge me. Wasn't easy to get to that point and I have a lot of people besides myself to thank for helping me along the way, but still...I'm proud of myself.

Yesterday, I heard a story that reminded me of my past, though, and made me so sad. Don't mean to be a downer, but I wanted to share because it's important that we all know what some of us still face. Reminds me of that saying that says...you're only as free as the least free person in your society...don't remember it exactly but something like that. Anyway....

I saw an acquaintance of mine last night and as we were catching up she began to tell me about her sister-in-law. She is 40 years old and just came out to her family as a lesbian. Evidently after a long string of loser, "hide-who-I-really-am" boyfriends and 4 and a half years of therapy she finally accepted who she was and came out to her mom and her brother and his wife. Evidently the brother and his wife are devout BAPTISTS *shock* and attend a church near my parents church called Harvest Baptist. (notice the "you are always welcome" banner on their website). Well, she proceeded to tell me what fanatics they are and how they ostracized their sister. They banned her from seeing her five year old niece unless she was "supervised." WTF? Her own mother rejected her (but eventually came back around thankfully). She moved away to try to live her own life but when she came back at Christmas to see her family, her sister-in-law pulled her into the bathroom, shut the door and angrily demanded to know whether or not she had ever "touched" her 5 year old niece. Stunned and hurt, she insisted that she was a lesbian NOT a pedophile. Come to find out...her little niece likes to play with trains instead of dolls so her evil mother was "worried."

Ugghh...hearing all that just gave me a sick feeling...to think that someone would treat ANYBODY let alone their own family that way....then it made me realize that I might face this same situation. My sister has only been married for a year, but plans to eventually have kids. I would LOVE to have a little niece or nephew to spoil, but the sad reality is that I will probably never be the kind of aunt I'd love to be....they'll never be allowed to stay over my house or anything since I "live in sin". Who knows...maybe my sister will come around too, but last I knew she was still "worried I was going to hell." Guess I should try to be more positive, but it's a little tough in this situation...

The good news in all this, is that my friend was sharing this story with me because she couldn't believe that her family (it's her husband's family) would treat her sister-in-law like this. She stood up to her mother-in-law and evil sister-in-law and told them what a crock of shit it all was, and she had a direct hand in bringing her mother-in-law around to accept her own daughter. The cool thing is that she is straight as they come and didn't even know that I was gay (gave me a cool opportunity to come out to her which I did and she was HAPPY for me--go figure). (-: It's people like her that give me hope. So, in addition to telling that nasty story, I have to give her some major props! Way to go Mel! (-: