I'm 33 years old, and my mother came out when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. My parents divorced when I was in kindergarden, and, like most divorces of that era, it was not particularly friendly. My father did the "proper family upbringing" deal - Catholic schools, Boy Scouts, church, the whole Norman Rockwell experience.

It was a very controlling environment. And my stepmother was not too happy with a couple of independent-minded kids.

My brother and I moved back in with my mother and her partner after some bad experiences, and in high school, our house was where our friends came to have a safe, sane, non-abusive refuge fron some pretty messed up "traditional" families.

They've been together for almost 25 years now, and the state of Virginia said for my entire youth that what I was living in was damaging, wrong, and going to twist me. They were wrong. We were normal kids, made normal mistakes, and work normal jobs. Other than a bit of not trusting the authorities who constantly told us that our family was wrong, evil, sinful, etc. etc., that is.