My mother recently came to visit me in Indianapolis, where I currently live. I have always been close with my mother as most gay guys are. I did not know it at the beginning of the visit, but this one would be different than the others and would make me appreciate our relationship in a way I never did before. And it all started with a movie.
I moved to Indianapolis about 3 years ago after graduating from college. My mom didn’t get to visit often but I always looked forward to the time she was able to spend here. One day when we had nothing planned, we decided to watch a movie. I had read about a movie called “Prayers for Bobby” and thought it would be a nice movie to watch together. The movie is about a very religious mother and her gay son’s struggle to deal with his homosexuality and be accepted by her; he eventually commits suicide. Throughout the movie, I managed to hold in all the tears; sad movies always make me cry, but this one was different somehow.
After the movie was over, I looked over at my mom and saw tears in her eyes. I looked at her, burst into tears, and through sobs managed to say 2 words – “Thank you.”
She looked at me with a somewhat confused look and said, “Thank you for what?”
I was barely able to get it out, but managed to say, “Thank you for never doing that to me and accepting me for who I am.” At that moment, she started crying and gave me a big hug. It was at that moment that I realized how lucky I am and for the first time, I truly appreciated her acceptance of me.
Even though we had a good laugh afterward about how sappy we both had gotten (after we finished crying and pulled ourselves together), I still get choked up when I think of that day.
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