I'm reexamining my memories at this stage of mid-life, and two that came to mind were times my Mom had made a point to expose me to (promote) gay male and trans role models. In the 70's she took me to NYC to someplace that had recording artists who, some at least, were AMAB folks in dresses and makeup. This was a daytime tour, so I didn't see the performances, but backstage their manager showed me their "gallery of stars" and was saying they were quite successful, great people, and wondered if I could tell from looking at the pictures. Then a few years later she brought me to a presentation by a gay man (I'd guess he was around 30) giving a talk/workshop on equal employment for lesbian, gay and bisexual folks. She even said out loud she thought he was a good role model. This seems to be a really advanced acceptance on her part, and I'm wondering if any others had that kind of guidance as a kid?
Sort of...my Mom didn't really go to the extent of going to LGBT type groups, but she taught me to accept others. She was always a huge LGBT ally growing up. She didn't like me going to churches if they hated LGBT people, I would get grounded if I said anything homophobic, etc. Even my story is somewhat considered unusual, yours seems like she was really over eager about it. Definitely not a bad thing though! It's pretty cool that your Mom wanted to expose you to different kinds of people.
Wow I'm happy for you! I feel like my mom tries really hard to accept LGBT, but I feel that the community (especially the black LGBT community) was consistently presented to her as abnormal, dirty, weird, peculiar, gross, etc. and she's having trouble accepting them. Outwardly, she is an ally but I really want to help her view LGBT people in a more positive, normative light.
My mother has... an interesting history regarding this. She helped found an LGBT pride group for her college, and has made friends with many gay people, largely because she was a theatre major. The group she was in ended up having their group picture on the school newspaper which was, at the time, being run by a neo-nazi. She ended up on a hitlist of his, in which he ended up getting found out and sent to prison. She told me this story *after* I had come out to her, wondering why I was so hesitant before. My family doesn't really have a perfect track record of LGBT rights. The bottom line is definitely there, but some things seem to get tossed. For example, every time I've tried to express my gender in front of them, my mother tends to panic a bit and question why I want to wear a bra, a dress, or a skirt. Especially when it's in front of my younger siblings, where she's asked how to explain it to them (which, they've perfectly understood from the get-go). My name and sometimes pronouns are issues, as well. It seemed to be taken of somewhat of a betrayal when I mentioned my preferred name, and that I mostly have a preferred name rather than set of pronouns. Mom doesn't have the best memory (and it's kinda gotten passed to me), so I can usually forgive that deal. It also wasn't until I came out that my father stopped making jokes about gay people. He's now been trying to convince the pastor that I'm not some sort of demonic being from the seventh circle, interested in giving people AIDS, but of course, it's not been going too well. He has gotten picked up by the music director for more parts, though. They both have a "Treat others the way you want to be treated, and accept those different than you" mindset that they teach everyone, though. And they do their best to follow it, even when it has to involve my sister or myself pointing something out. I've learned quite a bit about my parents after coming out.
