Thanksgiving 2008

I remember vividly the day I came out to my older sister, Tricia. We were at a Chevy's Mexican restaurant with my good friend Josh, who already knew about me, and Tricia's fiancé at the time, Dom. Poor Josh had no idea that I was going to drop this bombshell to my sister over a basket of tortilla chips.

On the car ride over to Chevy's, I asked my sister some innocuous questions such as "What do you think of Janet Reno?" and "Doesn't k.d. lang have such a pretty voice?" I looked over at Josh, who was in the back seat with me, and could tell he was trying not to laugh. He then shook his head in disbelief when he saw me reading a copy of The Advocate that I had strategically hidden behind a copy of People magazine.

When I have an impulse to do something, there is no holding me back. The filter in my head disintegrates and words just come out. We were in the Chevy's maybe 10 minutes when I looked at my sister and said, "Well, I am glad you like Janet Reno because I'm gay too." After I made my announcement, my sister was like "That's fine. Are you going to get the fajitas?" Dom, on the other hand, was very quiet. Finally, I asked him point blank, "Dom, do you have any questions?" And he replied, "Oh, no. I had friends in theater in college, so I know all about it." It was at that point that I confirmed that I had the best sister in the world and she was about to marry the nicest and funniest guy.

As much as I enjoyed this moment with my sister and Dom, nothing tops the funny response my dad had when I came out to my parents a few years later. By this point, I am sure they already knew and were relieved I finally dropped all the secrets. My dad remained fairly quiet and then finally exclaimed, "What about Josh!" I laughed so hard and said, "Sorry Dad, Josh and I will always be just friends." And then he dropped it, never questioned it again, and from then on I had the best relationship ever with my parents.

I've been thinking a lot about family and how welcoming my family was with Cindy from the moment they met her. They took her into the family right away and viewed her as a daughter, a sister, an aunt, and as a wife to me. It's actually impossible to be completely despondent this Thanksgiving because I'm so lucky to have an amazing, supportive family that consists of both my blood relatives and my extended family of friends.