Tonight, 20/20 did a story on the possibility that being gay is due to genetics.  Scientific studies are being done on gay brothers in search of the “gay” gene.  The best part of the story was the families they interviewed, a few parents of gay children who sincerely believe their children were born that way.

One mother believed her son was gay since he was 3 years old.  20/20 showed clips of their family videos of the young child nancing about in a world of pretend where he always wanted to play King and Queen.  His mom always had to be the King!  Sure enough, he’s twenty now and gay.

Another kid also knew from an early age that he liked boys.  At 13, he leaned over in class and told a girl he was gay.  “Cool,” she exclaimed.  So, he went home to tell Mom.  “Okay, dinner will be ready in ten minutes,” his mother answered.  Mom believed it was biologically.  She had her husband, and one day, her son too would be with whoever made him happy.  At 11, this young guy had searched the internet to find out what made him gay, but there was no answer.

WOW!  I only wish there was a book or a computer back then when I was 18 and first came out to my Mom.  Luckily, I had already had the support of many friends in school who were gay too, but I was a senior in high school when I first told Mom.  She wanted to deny it as being true at first and forbid me to tell anyone else.  She wanted to pretend I’d never told her.  But time changed all that.  She is much more accepting these days, and the rest of the family knows now too.

That was a hard time for me back then, and I can only imagine how it may or may not be for kids coming out these days.  Kudos to 20/20 for giving this story new light!