Coming Out Was Easy

What was hard was dealing with assumptions — mine as well as others’

Photo by Viktor Hesse on Unsplash

One of my five sisters — the one who doesn’t believe in keeping secrets — outed me to my family when I was 18.

We were all eating dinner at my grandparents’ summer house when she announced it, like a six year old telling tales.

“LuCINda’s a LESbian,” she taunted.

My parents considered themselves enlightened and open-minded, so it wasn’t as if I thought it was any big deal to tell them. But my mother surprised me with her response.

“You can’t simply dismiss fifty percent of the world like that!” she said testily.

To which I countered, “But everyone dismisses fifty percent of the world, it’s just the other fifty percent that I dismiss.

“And anyway, you’re married, you’ve dismissed 99 percent of the world!”

I figured I’d won that argument when she muttered, “You should be a lawyer.” But the topic was pushed under the carpet, and my parents’ liberal mindset was further belied when I brought my girlfriend to their apartment to stay for the weekend.

Belle was put in a poky room off the kitchen, and I was put in the guest room!