Coming Out Part 2: A Pride Story of a Mom That Found Out By Reading Her Sons Diary!

As we celebrate Pride, Damnit Maurie takes a closer look at the difficulties of coming out and the challenges that come along with it. In Part two of his video series with CityNews, Maurie speaks with a mom who found out her son was gay by reading his diary.

Anyone that takes the step to come out wants nothing more than love, acceptance and support from their family. Gavin kept a diary of his feelings, including how he felt about a certain guy. His mother Susan stumbled onto this diary and read it, finding out all Gavin’s deep secrets about life, feelings and dreams of being with this guy. “I’ve always kinda known that he was gay but I needed to confirm it in my own head, and I found the journal it’s almost as if he left it behind on purpose.” Susan then began to worry “immediately in my mind I thought he was in trouble, because I’ve always been trained to think that gay people were unhappy, that people would hurt someone that was gay.”

Was this a better way of coming out for Gavin, after all, he didn’t have to say anything to his mom? “It wasn’t necessarily how I envisioned it but in the long run it worked out perfectly… ”

Susan explained how this worked out perfectly, “It was my birthday, 1993, and Gavin phoned me, and I had just found out the night before, I wasn’t going to say anything until he called me. He phoned me and he sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and the first thing I said was ‘…I know!’ and he burst into tears…and I burst into tears…and he wasn’t ready then.”

When Susan looks back at the person she was it upsets her, “I feel so bad and so guilty, for the things that I wasn’t there for him, when he needed me. It kills me to know what he went through.” She then looks at Gavin and says, “Always believe, that I love you exactly the way you are, I would never have you change in any way.”

“Don’t say anything that is going to hurt your kids, listen to your kids,” is the advice Susan gives to any parent that is having a hard time accepting their child.