We all have stories of people we come out to that try to be supportive and just get it so wrong. At the moment my wife and I are splitting up (amicably). The house has to be sold and the proceeds used to buy two cheaper houses. We are telling everyone and we are not keeping the reason a secret. An artist friend of my wife is helping us do up the house before we put the house on the market. In a phone call about other things he asks me do I want drawings of nude males that some of his students did. Well not so much ask, but almost insist that I take them. I had to find several reasons and excuses to refuse them. Seriously would he have ‘pushed’ nude female drawings onto a straight guy? Do some straight people think we are a separate species? I’d love to hear well-meaning but clueless things your straight friends, colleagues or family did.
My mum told my gay uncle I'm gay. My aunt specifically said don't tell that uncle because he will tell my dad. He hasn't told my dad but drops hints around me and I pretend I have no idea what he's talking about. This was the same man who "coincidentally" took me shopping in the capital of the country on the same day the gay pride parade was on. I was 14 at the time and I didn't know I was gay. I'm thinking of pulling out the imaginary boyfriend I had in secondary school. It would make my life easier.
