That's good, she said, and meant it. At 51, she knew a gay man for the first time, and he was her son. They asked us not to print their last name. Kathy and her husband Terry are proud of Mark, of everything about him. But they know how the world can treat a young gay man, and they don't want it to find him too easily.
All parents worry, watching a child fall in love for the first time.
It's called first love, after all, because it usually is not the last. In between, people get hurt. It is fear, constant but fresh again, every day. But if my son goes to the mall and holds his boyfriend's hand, he's putting his life in danger. It makes Kathy angry, makes her blue-green eyes darken almost to indigo, to think people exist who would let Mark's sexuality overwhelm the rest of him, and hate him for it.