Hello I am Zero's Brother

[username]

I can't relate to that. I told my family when I was 15, but come to think of it, after my experience, his hiding may have been the best way for him to deal with it.

I like gay people just as much as I like anyone else and if one of my kids were gay I'd accept it and be ok with it, but I'd still prefer them not to be. My sister is gay and it makes me uncomfortable watching her and her girlfriend being affectionate so I know it would be even weirder if it was my kid. I don't know why it makes me uncomfortable, it just does.

They made me watch the L Word one day which is a lesbian show and after about 15 minutes into it I told them I'm outta here, you guys watch this crap on your own .

I would not have handled seeing either of my parents being sexually intimate with their own gender. How could I have expected them to accept me? The fact is I didn't. I told them fully expecting them to smile and say, Don't worry every one starts out in puberty attracted to their own gender and just like a catapillar metamorphoses into a butterfly, all sexuality goes from homosexual to heterosexual as puberty progresses. Instead they shipped me out to an institution where for three months I received a total of 35 electroshock treatments in order to correct this devientcy. I accepted since I didn't want to be gay any more than they wanted me gay. When it proved a failure and I was still gay is when the real trouble for me began. They figured I just wanted to be queer and they wanted nothing to do with me. I struggled for years getting past the banishment and trying to appreciate their position.


My sister is the only person who stood up to them and cursed them for what they were doing.

But that was 50 years ago. Much has changed.

Holy hell. Part of me understands that attitudes/beliefs were completely different 50 years ago but looking at it from the perspective of what we know today, that's terribly abusive and ignorant. Do they regret now what they did to you then?