24. What Is It Like To Have an LGBT Child?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/02/11/what_is_it_like_to_have_an_lgbt_child.html

Quora Contributor wrote on Feb 11 about the story of her son's life and how she felt about having a LGBT son. She introduced her topic saying Dave, her son, was "very definitely born gay," but in the next paragraph revealed her thoughts about her gay son saying she "didn't care." She then briefly continued to talk about her son's life in high school and after college, and how Dave introduced his boyfriend Rob to his mother and was moving in with Rob. Later on, Contributor talked about how she revealed that her son was gay to her daughter when she called, and how later Dave called back his mother unhappy of the situation. Though Contributor also revealed Dave's "sister didn't care either," and that she was happy for him, she explained how she felt bad for taking away something Dave considered very important. She also said Dave and Rob were soon going to marry, and that she was fine with it.

Contributor's purpose in writing this article was to describe what it was like having a gay son. She approached the audience in a narrative pattern, and included herself as one of the characters in it (first person narration). Her tone can be seen as one of acceptance to LGBT people, as evident in many of her phrases such as "Well, we didn't care," "I'm glad they get a chance to be like everyone else. But to me, it doesn't matter... and that's fine with me," and others. She seemed to be indifferent to the fact that her son is gay when she said "We always supported him because he was Dave, not because he was gay." The article was well organized, and she included personal thoughts along the narration to show the reader how she felt about a certain issue or situation.