Submitted by liberoterra last March 14th 2007, 08:03 AM

Category: Coming Out Stories

It was a cold New Year's Eve, and my Dad and his partner had dragged me out to a party. Normally, I'd be at home, or at a friend's house- parties weren't normally my scene. But my Dad made it clear I had no choice- I had to go.
When we made it, the sight of the party made me even more depressed than I was. Disco lights, straight couples, and alcohol. I might have no interest in the first two, but in the last... I sat myself down with a bottle of vodka and watched with bleary eyes the slowly moving people on the floor.
Soon, it became clear I was getting drunk- my feet weren't going where I wanted them to, and my inhibitions were lowering. Without noticing, I'd been staring at a guy across the room for a while, until his eyes met mine. Oh, no...
To make a long story short, we talked for a while. and shared a kiss. But this wasn't as simple as it would seem. Ursula, my Dad's partner, spotted us in the corner- I saw her eyes widen as she stared. This was, in short, very bad.
I stepped carefully around the dance floor and towards my Dad's table. I stood behind Ursula's chair and whispered urgently in her ear. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" My Dad looked up in surprise as I spoke. "In private?"
We found a secluded corner fenced off by unused chairs, and sat down. I said, "You remember Simon? Well Simon was...and Pete, and..." I gabbled, panicked, and trailed off. "The point is", I said, "I'm gay." For the first time in 4 years, I had said something to a family member. She looked down for a minute, and then met my eyes again. She nodded firmly. "That's fine." My heart lifted in surprise, but she continued, "You shouldn't tell your Dad. Not tonight. Honestly, I think he'd knock you out." I glanced over to Dad, where he was singing loudly and badly, drunken and staggering. I laughed, and agreed.
And in time, when we did tell him, he accepted it, even if he didn't like it. I had all those moments I'd missed, when I brought my boyfriend to meet my dad, I cooked dinner for my family with him, he slept over. And I realised- with that drunken moment on New Year's Eve, when I blurted out my secret- I'd been set free.