I have 2 straight parents. They married after 3 months of courtship in Connecticut while my father was in the Navy. 9 months later they had me...14 months later they had my sister and about 2 years after that they had the youngest of us.
Prior to my birth and as the result of a short-lived relationship my mom had with a man younger than she was i became "little sister" to my estranged half brother, where it is customary when meeting his kin or posse for them to greet me with "Oh, I didn't know he had a sister."
My father left when my youngest sister was 3 months old.
3 years of marriage, 3 kids, and 3 months of pre-nuptials lead to a bitter divorce, infidelity, and a life-long battle with depression for my mom.
How did my father fare? he married the woman he cheated with, adopted her 2 daughters and now lives in upper-class suburbia where he runs for political offices in his community.
So tell me, oh ye better educated, what IS family and wherever did you get your definition?
Skip ahead 17 years later, after a child and teen-hood of physical, sexual, emotional and mental abuse. I get diagnosed with menniers disease and lose my hearing because of so-called "stress", I miss a year of high school, I drop out, get my g.e.d., move out of the house, get arrested for allegedly being "a runaway", and somehow make it out of their alive without ever once turning to drugs, sex or alcohol. By the time I was 17 I had completed a year and a half of college course work and maintained a 3.8 grade point average, while also being the MVP for the soccer team. (My jersey number, ironically was 3...my mantra, now and forever being my holocaust branding).
I was, by all accounts, not typical.
My family was the cause for a lot of unnecessary pain in my life. Each person trying desperately to be what they're not. Whether my dad wasn't Christian enough, or my mom wasn't wild enough, my brother wasn't "legitimate" enough, or my sisters and i not collateral enough...
We all fell short.
What saved me from sex, high school partying, drugs, alcohol, and teen depression were my faith and the people I CONSIDER "family".
"My family" was made up of 3 kids who weren't afraid to exist. We found each other in the dark and made our way to the light, guided by our faith and our instinct of what it means to be alive. We were all emotionally drowning.
"My family" came from a past of cutting, abuse of every kind, suicide, masochism, self-loathing, and pain.
"My family" is in no way related to me, we don't share the same ancestry or bloodline. One of us is Gay, One of us is celibate, and One of us is straight and straight up lost.
And WE ARE A FAMILY. We three, are a unit. We share the same pain, the same faith, the same hope, the same love and the same God.
We have the same needs, the need for companionship, understanding, acceptance, patience, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and unadulterated love. The need for God, the need for food, drink, sex, and complete and utter honesty.
We are by all accounts, made equal. And by all accounts are equally driven to seek out love wherever it is best found. Be it in God, man, woman, same sex, or opposite sex.
Being Gay is not to make up for what we didn't get as a child, being straight isn't an testament to a strong-loving home, and being celibate is not a result of rape or sexual abuse.
My part gay, part straight, part celibate family saved me from death. They saved my from a life of anger, resentment and hate. "My family" taught me love.
And because of THAT "family", I am finally able to heal with my own family.
Vote no on 8 not because you're against "Family" but because you're for a family that actually wants to be together.
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