My first gay encounter

The first time I encountered someone that was gay was my oldest brother’s best friend. They were friends all throughout high school and were roommates in college. Mark, my brother’s friend, was never openly gay until he got to college and he didn’t tell my family, who is like his second family, until his sophomore year, when I was in 8^th grade. I can remember my mom sitting me down to tell me like it was big news and I was going to have some big reaction, but I wasn’t really surprised and didn’t think it was that big of a deal. It’s not that he’s this very flamboyant guy; he was just never interested in girls and whenever he came over we always gossiped about the hot celebrity guys. At the time I may not have grasped the concept that he was gay, but when it was said to me out loud it all started to make sense.

I know that it was hard for Mark to tell my family because he was afraid we wouldn’t be accepting of him. He actually didn’t even tell us on purpose, my dad and my middle brother found out by a refrigerator magnet in their apartment that said “Help me my roommate is gay”. Naturally they were curious and started asking questions. Mark ended up telling them and of course everyone in my family had different reactions. My oldest brother, who already knew and had known for a long time, didn’t care, but my dad and middle brother had different reactions. My dad was a little uncomfortable but found a way to make an inappropriate joke out of it. My middle brother, the masculine baseball player, was completely uncomfortable with the situation and sometimes to this day is still uncomfortable around Mark. My mom, like everyone was shocked to hear the news, but she was very accepting. None of my family’s reactions influenced my own though, I was never shocked by the news and I was happy for Mark. I was and still am proud of him for coming out and being himself, because some people don’t have the courage to do that.