Today was an emotional day. It was all together challenging, rewarding, beautiful, sad and happy. All the feels of life and in particular the past two years condensed into one day. As individuals my ex and I have come a long way the hard way in the past two years. This was the first time he felt comfortable enough to ask us to attend the PRIDE parade with him as a family. For many reasons, some of which I blog about (www.straightoutloud.com) and even though I still feel that the LGBTQ+ community could and should be doing more to help acknowledge and support spouses/partners left behind after discovery or a partners coming out and after all the heartbreak and hardship of the past 2 years I still went to the parade today because I know how important it is to teach my children that love is love and that everyone deserves the freedom to live authentically. During the parade I felt a lot of love and warmth and was happy to see so many people celebrating and supporting but at times I also felt waves of sadness knowing that people were looking at my ‘family’ and thinking we were a happy hetero ally family, and while we are allies we are so much more than just that. My goal this year is to continue raising awareness and connecting with LGBTQ+ organizations to foster support and partnership for mixed orientation families, straight spouses and other partners who’s loved ones come out as LGBTQ+. There are more of us then you realize and likely to be even more in the next 5 years. We too are victims of homophobia/transphobia and need to feel loved and supported, not silenced and shamed. Maybe next year there will be a straight spouses/partners/mixed orientation family banner and community presence in the parade…. And maybe just maybe, one day there will be no more straight spouses/ partners left behind at all. #loveislove #healing #straightspouse #mixedorientationfamily
