A parent’s job is to love their children and support them no matter what choices they make or who they become. But for many parents, that commitment is put to the test when they don’t agree with who their child falls in love with.
When a teenager first told her mother about her sexuality and the types of people she was interested in dating, she was devastated when her mom rebuked her. The mother spent years trying to change her daughter, but she finally learned to accept her in just a few hours thanks to a mother-daughter night out…
Coming To Terms With The Truth
In 2014, a teenager named Jade finally worked up the nerve to tell her mom and the rest of her family that she was bisexual. She had known for a long time before that point in time but had always been too scared to tell her family out of fear that they wouldn’t approve.
Suppressing Herself
For a long time before that point, the 14-year-old had tried to suppress her sexuality in an effort to be ‘normal’, but eventually, it got to a point where she needed to tell her parents and family members so that she could finally be true to herself…
Hoping For Support
Like anyone coming out to their families, Jade hoped that her mother and father, who were supposed to love her unconditionally, would be accepting of the news or at least be supportive even if they didn’t completely understand everything.
Shocking News
However, Jade knew that the news would be a huge shock to them and was afraid their reaction wasn’t going to be so positive. Unfortunately, all of Jade’s fears came true when she worked up the nerve to tell her parents and family members that she was bisexual…
Coming Out
Not only did Jade’s family not understand, but they cruelly rebuked her for opening up to them and being honest with them, which was incredibly difficult for her. “In 2014 I came out to my mom as bisexual, [and] she told me she would never look at me the same,” Jade explained.
The Worst Possible Reaction
“I was called disgusting [and] my dad told me I’d ‘get over it eventually,’” Jade said. “My mom tried to force me to be straight.” After her parent’s devastating reaction, Jade spent the next 6 hours hysterically crying by herself in the bathroom…
Ignoring The Truth
As if her family hadn’t made their feelings clear about Jade’s admission, they all ignored her for days after that and alienated her from the family. Eventually, however, Jade’s family tried to go on as if everything was ‘normal’ like it had been before Jade came out to them.
Forced To Be Straight
Rather than focusing her energy on trying to accept her daughter as she was, Jade’s mother tried to force her to be straight. She was angry that Jade was ‘different’ and wouldn’t have the life she always dreamed her daughter would have as an adult…
Not A Choice
No matter how hard Jade’s mother tried to force her daughter to be straight it never worked. And as much as Jade wanted her mother’s acceptance and approval, her sexuality wasn’t a choice and she couldn’t lie to herself anymore by pretending to be heterosexual.
Her First Crush
Over a year later, Jade met a girl from the Netherlands while on the internet, and the pair quickly started developing feelings for each other. The more the girls spoke and opened up to each other, the stronger those mutual feelings became…
The Second Attempt
After a while, Jade wanted to tell her mother about the girl she had met online and had been talking to, so 2 years after coming out to her family, she told her mom that she had a crush on a girl, hoping enough time had passed and that her mom was more open to the idea.
Another Rejection
Despite how happy Jade clearly was about her crush and the time that had passed since she came out, Jade’s mom was still devastated. “We cried in a parking lot [and] she told me she wasn’t okay with it,” Jade said about the moment her mother rejected her for the second time…
Moving Forward
The then 16-year-old was disappointed that nothing had really changed and lost hope that her mother would ever be accepting of her sexuality, so she decided to stop waiting for her family’s approval. “I asked the girl out anyways,” Jade explained.
The First Girlfriend
Jade asked the girl to be her girlfriend, and when she accepted she was happier than she had ever been. The only thing that was missing was having her family share in her joy. However, because Jade and her girlfriend lived in different countries, they had to stay in a long distance relationship…
A Life-Changing Trip
After about a year in a long-distance relationship, Jade flew over 4,000 miles so they could finally meet in real life. During the trip, which was everything Jade had hoped it would be, she and her girlfriend even shared their first kiss while on a Ferris wheel.
Staying Silent
When she returned home, all she wanted was to tell her mom everything about what had happened and how amazing she felt when she was with her girlfriend, however, she had to stay silent since they didn’t accept that part of her life and it would only dredge up bad feelings…
Love, Simon
Even though Jade stopped waiting for her family’s approval, she never gave up on them or stopped working to spending time with them. In 2018, Jade convinced her mother to join her for a night out at the movies to see ‘Love, Simon’, which is about a high school student struggling with his sexuality.
An Unexpected Reaction
Jade hoped her mother would be able to look past the fact that the main character was homosexual and just try to appreciate the movie as a whole, which is why she was again disappointed when she looked over and saw her mother was crying in the middle of the movie. Jade assumed the tears were because she was still crushed about her daughter’s sexuality, but then her mom turned to her and said something she never expected…
The Apology
“She grabbed my hand in the theater while Simon came out to his family [and] mouthed, ‘I’m sorry,’ to me with tears in her eyes because when I came out I never got acceptance,” said Jade, who couldn’t believe her mother’s attitude toward her had changed more in under 2 hours than it had in 4 years.
A New Beginning
“When we were leaving the theater, she talked to me about my girlfriend proudly without caring that other people could hear us, something she would’ve never done even just a year ago,” Jade added. “I’m so sorry to anyone who will never have the amount of acceptance I have in my life. Even though it isn’t perfect, I know it’s better than what a lot of people have. I’m just [really] thankful for this movie and for the representation and love that came from it.”
After Years Forcing Bisexual Daughter To Be Straight, Mom Learns To Accept Her In 2 Hours is an article from: LifeDaily