08-18-2011, 05:14 PM
I've been watching all the it gets better videos I can find, they all talk about how it get's better after school and once you're an adult and blah, blah, blah... However, I don't care about school, I'm finished now anyway, but even when I was there there was a zero tolerance policy for bullying, and in the last half of my education rules were brought in specifically to stop homophobic bullying. Also in my personal life I've never had problems, I hate to say it but I live in quite an upper-class area and the people I see as the 'usual suspects' to be bullies just don't exist here. I have a brilliant group of friends and now at university I'm even happier with the atmosphere. My university was on Stonewall's Gay Friendly University Guide and the people in my class are very accepting, in fact, and in my opinion even better, they don't care. Like they say in most of the videos, the people in my class don't like me because I'm gay, they like me because I'm me.
The worry that brought me here however is another tangent of my personal life. At home it's not going as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an abused child and never have been, but my parents just aren't accepting. For about a year and a half my Dad resented me. For the last few months of that he didn't even speak to me, at all. We are once again on speaking terms but it's awkward. I know if I ever wanted to bring 'someone special' home he would become inflamed with anger and lash out, not at me, but at the person I brought home. I love my Dad, he supports my family with a job working for people he hates, however I really dislike him for his views about gays and, by default, me.
Again, I don't want to sound like the boy who never got the brass ring, but when I came out my Mum laughed it off with the old as days statements... "It's just a phase." Plus other things similar. My Mum is far, far more accepting than my Dad but whenever anything 'gay' comes up in conversation she changes the subject. I have tried to talk to her about the thing I'm passionate about, like gay rights and she gets annoyed at me. I'm more confused than I am upset in the case of my Mother because on more that one occasion she has asked me in a caring way if I'm seeing anyone, she has told me she doesn't care what I do in life as long as I'm happy and moral and she even gave me a revised version of 'the talk' a while after I came out, because I told her I wasn't a virgin. She has made it obvious to me that she is okay with my sexuality which confuses me when she turns that over and gets annoyed at me.
Neither of my parents are especially religious, in fact I'd say my Dad is an atheist and my Mum is a very liberal Catholic. It's gotten to the point where my Dad is pretty much a lost cause, but I have a good relationship with my Mum.
I don't even really know what I'm asking for here, which sounds silly, but I guess I'm just trying to fill the gap in the advice the It Gets Better videos provide. Any advice at all would be verily appreciated.
The worry that brought me here however is another tangent of my personal life. At home it's not going as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an abused child and never have been, but my parents just aren't accepting. For about a year and a half my Dad resented me. For the last few months of that he didn't even speak to me, at all. We are once again on speaking terms but it's awkward. I know if I ever wanted to bring 'someone special' home he would become inflamed with anger and lash out, not at me, but at the person I brought home. I love my Dad, he supports my family with a job working for people he hates, however I really dislike him for his views about gays and, by default, me.
Again, I don't want to sound like the boy who never got the brass ring, but when I came out my Mum laughed it off with the old as days statements... "It's just a phase." Plus other things similar. My Mum is far, far more accepting than my Dad but whenever anything 'gay' comes up in conversation she changes the subject. I have tried to talk to her about the thing I'm passionate about, like gay rights and she gets annoyed at me. I'm more confused than I am upset in the case of my Mother because on more that one occasion she has asked me in a caring way if I'm seeing anyone, she has told me she doesn't care what I do in life as long as I'm happy and moral and she even gave me a revised version of 'the talk' a while after I came out, because I told her I wasn't a virgin. She has made it obvious to me that she is okay with my sexuality which confuses me when she turns that over and gets annoyed at me.
Neither of my parents are especially religious, in fact I'd say my Dad is an atheist and my Mum is a very liberal Catholic. It's gotten to the point where my Dad is pretty much a lost cause, but I have a good relationship with my Mum.
I don't even really know what I'm asking for here, which sounds silly, but I guess I'm just trying to fill the gap in the advice the It Gets Better videos provide. Any advice at all would be verily appreciated.