Top 10 Lies You Told to Get to A-Camp

on May 7, 2012

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Lying to get to Autostraddle's First-Ever A-Camp Event wasn't something I'd imagined people doing, mostly 'cause I'm old and don't have anyone to answer to. Also, I'm out and have been since I was 17-ish. It's a privilege that must be checked and recognized. I, along with many of you, also live in a relatively safe, i.e. gay-friendly, environment. This is both a luxury and a blessing. All of my people within earshot or text distance knew that my lesbo ass was headed to the Shangri-la of camps.

This wasn't the case for all of our A-Campers. Some of you definitely had some 'splainin to do to parents, bosses and friends. From the minute, I picked up my girls in our (secretly raggedy) 15 passenger van, the stories of innocent deceit started to spill forth. I knew it couldn't be just them, so I went on the hunt to collect all of the lies from everyone at A-Camp. But then A-Camp was super awesome and jam-packed with panels to speak on, girls to meet and lesbian things to learn. So 'all of the lies' turned into this little Top Ten List just for you, to make you laugh and acknowledge that you did whatever it took to get there. We see you.

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Top Ten Lies told to Get to A-Camp

10. Visiting "friends"

As in friends who don't live in Cali, as in friends who do and are covering for you, as in this is still a lie.

9. Attending a Progressive Blogger's Conference

Yeahhhhh but noooooo. Liar.

8. Been asked to speak at a Feminism Rally

So close! But still not the truth.

7. Accepted into a Lesbian Christian Feminist Camp

Whoa -- all of that together -- does that even exist? Well, whatever works.

6. I'm just kinda going up to the mountains to do some mountaining--

*This lie receives the 'That's What She Said, Mz. Bernard' Award.

5. They think I'm in Texas, right now

Well honey boo boo, only steers and queers come from Texas, so at least you picked the right state.

4. Going rock climbing

And are there places to do this without your parent's permission or a website to verify and why don't we just come up with a lie for you next time?

3. On vacation (non-specific)

Even as an automated email reply, this fails.

2. Pro-Environment Camp

Um, are there any anti-environment camps? If so does that mean they have access to NASCAR and/or Twinkies?

And the number one best of the best LIES told to get to A-Camp is:

1. Attending a Professional Women's Networking Extravaganza

Cuz that is like, so how it was that I officially make this a truth. #YOLO

networking

Are there any super awesome lies not on this list? If you didn't go to camp, what lies would you have told? Or maybe you've crafted some creative non-truths in the past? You know where to leave them -- spill it beautiful homos.

Special Note: Autostraddle's "First Person" column exists for individual queer people to tell their own personal stories and share compelling experiences. These personal essays do not necessarily reflect the ideals of Autostraddle or its editors, nor do any First Person writers intend to speak on behalf of anyone other than themselves. First Person writers are simply speaking honestly from their own hearts.

93 responses to “Top 10 Lies You Told to Get to A-Camp”

EmmaJean (member)
May 7, 2012 at 7:43 am Permalink Reply Report user

When you guys come to the East Coast I will be the first to sign up.

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1. EmmaJean (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 7:44 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  And lie. Oh goodness gracious I will lie to my mother about where I’m headed.
  
  1
2. Hannah (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 9:08 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  I shall be the second!
  
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  1. Kelly (member)
    May 7, 2012 at 3:33 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    and I’ll be third!
    
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3. Denay (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 11:14 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Yes, please, please, PLEASE do this again but out east-ish.
  
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  1. Grace_B (member)
    May 7, 2012 at 5:27 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    And maybe closer to Canada? THANKS
    
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Emma (member)
May 7, 2012 at 7:59 am Permalink Reply Report user

I told my sister it was a feminist training camp, my roommates that it was a (non-specific) retreat, and my work that I was having a reunion with friends and going camping.
My family all pretty much thought it was a nudist camp until they saw pictures.
Next time I will not lie. That’s one thing A-Camp gave me.

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1. Melanie (member)
  May 9, 2012 at 12:45 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  A fair amount of us (GG’s too) didn’t bother explaining to friends or family what A-camp was. It doesn’t lend itself to easy explanation. At least until you walk through it.
  
  I saw some former co-workers from a very conservative workplace about 10 days before camp and mentioned that I was going camping and thet asked me where. First, I kind of stared at them, and there was an akward silence, and then I mumbled #6, and then they repeated “Where,” and there was more akward silence, and then my old boss mentioned a place, as if to give me something to say, and so I said, “Yes, there.” It was pretty sad. But I don’t see them very often.
  
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2. Digger (member)
  May 9, 2012 at 3:33 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  @Emma reading that last sentence just made my fucking day! Our cabin fucking rocked!
  
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  1. Melanie (member)
    May 9, 2012 at 6:10 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    It did. It STILL does. The GG cabin is abiding.
    
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    1. Digger (member)
      May 9, 2012 at 6:16 pm Permalink Reply Report user
      
      You need a Gravatar. Something to reflect your “Bad-Assery”
      
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Jamie (member)
May 7, 2012 at 7:59 am Permalink Reply Report user

I love that this became an article. It was fun to watch you ask people this with your official-looking clipboard. Definitely told everyone I was at a writer’s retreat. Partly truth?

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1. gabrielle (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 8:34 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  my clipboard! <3 u remembered her…
  
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Samantha (member)
May 7, 2012 at 8:09 am Permalink Reply Report user

I told my family I was going to a “feminist convention.” They bought it, I think, but I’m pretty sure they’re starting to suspect something after the picture of me and my cabin mates and our Littlefoot doll holding a big rainbow flag . . .

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1. Smilin Hobbes (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 9:43 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  That picture of us is so damn cute.
  
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2. Rachel (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 3:00 pm Permalink Reply
  
  it really is the cutest picture #littlefoot4ever
  
  0
  1. ItzaMe (member)
    May 22, 2012 at 4:24 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    I want to live in the LittleFoot cabin forever #littlefoot4ever
    
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3. Samantha (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 8:52 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  My mom said it was cute too – which is a good sign?
  
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Chrissy
May 7, 2012 at 8:10 am Permalink Reply

When y’all come to the East Coast, I’m signing up. I’ll just tell my mother that I’m hanging out with Haviland. She won’t question it.

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Brianna (member)
May 7, 2012 at 8:13 am Permalink Reply Report user

I just told people I was going to “camp” without any further explanation. And by “people,” I mean I told my emergency contact and as far as everyone else knows I was in Massachusetts the whole time, so, um.

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aaaconley (member)
May 7, 2012 at 8:23 am Permalink Reply Report user

Lesbian Christian Feminism Camp was the BEST.

I told my dad that Autostraddle was a “women’s website” and left out the queer part.
My supervisor’s supervisor thinks I was “visiting friends outside of LA.”
Pretty much everyone else knows the truth, and I’m grateful that I could be so honest about it.

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1. Bhan (member)
  May 10, 2012 at 12:26 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Is that a real thing?
  
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Capri
May 7, 2012 at 8:33 am Permalink Reply

Anti-environment camp = all the rest of life, basically.

The freeways & strip malls & large cars driven by single drivers we drove past in that 15-passenger van will haunt me forever.

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Michelle (member)
May 7, 2012 at 8:36 am Permalink Reply Report user

7 is my favorite. Had I been able to go, I probably would have made up some vague national academic competition that I had qualified for. Or perhaps just a national girl scout convention, so that I could have been openly excited about camping.

“National” is a requirement for out-of-state activities.

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enzymion
May 7, 2012 at 8:49 am Permalink Reply

Sadly, I was in the wrong continent to get to A-Camp, but I have done some pretty creative lying in my time. I think the lamest had to be when I went to go see Black Swan with a couple of friends a few months before I came out. While waiting in the queue, one of them turned to me, pulled a face and went, “You know, I’ve heard there’s some lesbian-y stuff in this.” Without thinking about it, I laughed and said, “Why do you think I’m here?”
Queue a long, awkward moment as I realise what I’ve just said, panic, and try to cover with, “Wait, did you say lesbian? I thought you said body horror! Hey, I’m just going to nip to the toilet!”, then flee before she realises that that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
And yet that same friend was still absolutely convinced I was taking the piss when I told her I was gay a few months later. The mind boggles.

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Allie B (member)
May 7, 2012 at 8:51 am Permalink Reply Report user

I told my Geology professor it was my grandpa’s 80th birthday and I told my math professor I was going to a geology conference. However, this camp was how I came out to my parents and family so that makes up for something… right?

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1. gabrielle (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 10:39 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  i totally want to hear this story. it sounds so amazing. message me, girl. tell me the things.
  
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Jane (member)
May 7, 2012 at 9:02 am Permalink Reply Report user

I used to work at a bookstore, and when Queer Prom rolled around, I told my parents that I had to work overnight to prepare for a Sarah Palin book-signing event.

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1. bra (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 12:35 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  LMAO!!!
  
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2. Asher (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 1:27 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  That’s awesome! I’m sure she’d approve…
  
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pips (member)
May 7, 2012 at 9:12 am Permalink Reply Report user

I didn’t lie this time, but camp take two is in the middle of my first semester at grad school and I’m planning on telling my professors/field placement supervisors that I’m going to a family reunion that’s been planned for a year already and my great grandma is super old and this might be the last time I see her. (All of my grandparents, great and otherwise, are already dead so I feel ok with using this excuse.)

The “family reunion” part is totally true, though! My queer family.

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1. pips (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 9:18 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Also when I got home my mom actually asked me if I had done any networking. I was like “……….uh……no.”
  
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2. Paper0Flowers (member)
  May 8, 2012 at 12:40 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3
  
  I don't have enough hearts to emit my joy at this.
  
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Emily (member)
May 7, 2012 at 9:18 am Permalink Reply Report user

#1 was my truth. And I was pretty upfront about it being Queer camp.

But when talking to most straight people, I dance around the word “Autostraddle” like a closet-case around pronouns. Once I mentioned it and the guy goes “huhwhatnow?” and I fumbled out “oh, the blog-it’s a blog. It won things, like a Bloggie Award. It’s a blog.”

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1. Diana (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 11:26 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  THIS. EXACTLY THIS.
  
  And Riese’s weird explanation of what Autostraddle means at opening campfire didn’t help, either.
  
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  1. Sharks (member)
    May 12, 2012 at 4:05 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    Is this explanation going to be at opening campfire 2.0?
    
    Because I think I need to hear it.
    
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2. Asher (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 1:29 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  It’s just so difficult…people tend to automatically assume it’s porn or nudism with a name like that. I just go with, “It’s this website thing I read…you wouldn’t have heard of it…”
  
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  1. Hannah (member)
    May 7, 2012 at 10:40 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    I say, “one of the lesbian websites I read,” and that seems to go pretty well.
    
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  2. wasteunit (member)
    May 8, 2012 at 8:15 am Permalink Reply Report user
    
    This isn’t camp-related, but my god the word “Autostraddle” has caused me so many problems! My paypal account was hacked a few months ago. I had to have many, many phone calls with my bank and paypal to fix everything. The last transaction on my paypal account before it was hacked was my Autostraddle subscription. It comes up as “The Excitant Group.” Both my bank and paypal thought it was some porn site and lectured me on safe internet habits and didn’t want to help because they thought I had giving my paypal information to porn-scammers. Saying, “no, that’s for a site called ‘Autostraddle’” didn’t really help my cause. Especially when I finally convinced someone to go to the site and it was blocked for sexual content. But everything is better now! And I will never use paypal again! So I had to be a weirdo and pay for camp by check!
    
    1
    1. smartypants (member)
      May 8, 2012 at 9:38 am Permalink Reply Report user
      
      You’re a dork.
      God I do love you.
      Let’s BBQ soon.
      
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3. Emma (member)
  May 8, 2012 at 7:28 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  I just say “online community”
  
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L
May 7, 2012 at 9:19 am Permalink Reply

I think you should make a website for some fictional Feminist Women’s Writing (Christian?) Camp… whose link can be provided to parents wanting information.

(Except not… I do approve of giving correct information to where you are to parents if you’re going off into the wilderness and you’re under 18… although I don’t mean this to be snarky or anything, like if you can pull it off… well, you do you.)

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silvercake (member)
May 7, 2012 at 10:29 am Permalink Reply Report user

I’m proud to have made it into your top 10!

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Lisa (member)
May 7, 2012 at 10:31 am Permalink Reply Report user

Lesbian Christian Feminist Camp could have come from a misunderstanding because people often ask you to repeat yourself or they just makeup stuff about what they think you said.
And sometimes you’re just like, “yeah, it’s a Lesbian Christian Feminist Camp.” And that’s the part they hear clearly.
Also, you may not use inflection properly when being sarcastic.

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Bustedsneakers
May 7, 2012 at 10:47 am Permalink Reply

Ahaha, haha. My best Event-Related Cover For Me Lie:
“Attending a housewarming and an art opening this weekend with friends” got me from Canada to New York City without ever explaining where, exactly, those things were happening. Which was in a girl’s bedroom in Queens.

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Sim (member)
May 7, 2012 at 10:48 am Permalink Reply Report user

Last Saturday in order to go to the Atlanta HRC Gala, I told my mother I was going to a Dean’s List Dinner. Thank G-d she never checks up on me.

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1. smartypants (member)
  May 8, 2012 at 9:42 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  OMG! this is so funny but so true! When you are on the Dean’s List you can get away with SOOO much shit!
  
  I remember we had a bake-sale at school which may or may not have contained the addition of botanical elements. We made enough money to take the entire French Club to see Madonna.
  
  #DeansListQueersFTW
  
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BlueRanger (member)
May 7, 2012 at 11:15 am Permalink Reply Report user

“I have to stay at college and study this weekend.” I went to pride instead. Studying beautiful women counts, right?

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Carmen SanDiego (member)
May 7, 2012 at 11:30 am Permalink Reply Report user

That group picture is amazing

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Vikki
May 7, 2012 at 11:40 am Permalink Reply

You really did me around so that I could serve as the parent-sanctioned chaperone.

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shannon (member)
May 7, 2012 at 12:06 pm Permalink Reply Report user

While at camp, I texted in sick to 5 separate work shifts (2 jobs), which I had carefully scheduled so I would never have to text the same person twice and only have to text an actual boss once.

Because I have been traveling in Asia recently, I told everyone when I returned that the doctor suggested I quarantine myself until my symptoms passed in case the virus was foreign (but that I was better now and no longer contagious).

I didn’t tell my parents cause they live in San Diego and have been asking me to come visit since I got back from the Asia travels and I keep saying “no way I am wayyy too busy and tight on money to drive down to southern california right now” but then my sister told her I went to a music festival near LA (what? why?). So then I just told my mom I was camping, bad service, no time for details.

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1. Asher (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 1:33 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  That sounds so complicated and scary…I could never do that an elabourate of a plan and pull it off.
  
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  1. shannon (member)
    May 7, 2012 at 1:45 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    and the silly part is that it had nothing to do with the gay, I’m out to my parents and my boss is a lesbian…
    
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lia
May 7, 2012 at 12:36 pm Permalink Reply

well I don’t know about lying to go somewhere..but my bookmark of autostraddle.com says ‘IPA/phonetic_transcription’. so there’s that

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1. Laura
  May 7, 2012 at 2:38 pm Permalink Reply
  
  I think we could fall in love, lia.
  
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  1. Lina (member)
    May 7, 2012 at 3:00 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    that would be nice. also, after clicking on your name/checking out if we’re soulmates I gotta tell you: It’s not M.I.A., it’s Fame by Santigold !
    
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    1. Laura (member)
      May 7, 2012 at 9:30 pm Permalink Reply
      
      ohmygosh i just found out yesterday! i was taking my clip around work demanding answers and one of my friends knew. also have you heard her new album? because i listened to it and my feelings are superpositive.
      
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      1. Lina (member)
        May 8, 2012 at 9:27 am Permalink Reply Report user
        
        yes,I’ve been listening to it for a few days now and I also feel very positive about it.very!
        
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2. Lizzy
  May 8, 2012 at 8:52 pm Permalink Reply
  
  *resists making dirty jokes about linguolabials*
  
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Emmerson
May 7, 2012 at 12:58 pm Permalink Reply

Luckily I didn’t have to (or didn’t bother, no fucks given) lie to anyone in my immediate circle, my parents and my brother had to listen to me count down excitedly for months, my boss got my whole excited schpiel as well as my co-workers and regulars.. everyone knew I was going to a magical gay place on the other side of the continent. BUT I did have to lie to the scary looking border guard on my way in.. I stumbled over my words as he looked me up and down and told him I was going to a camping retreat.. I’m really glad he didn’t ask me to elaborate.

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Victoria (member)
May 7, 2012 at 4:27 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I’ve been telling people different things, so it’s been kind of tough keeping track of all the stories.

To my parents: Going to an education convention as an extension of my spring semester. They can’t argue with school related things!
To some friends: Going to a feminist convention.
To some other friends: Going to a Christian camp. With a bunch of girls.
To yet some other friends: It’s a website community….and we all decided we should start hanging out….in real life….so…..yeah…..

So far, no one has really questioned me based on the pictures on FB. Either they haven’t figured it out yet or nobody wants to be the first to ask

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1. gabrielle (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 4:36 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  all of those things added together = lesbian christian feminism camp
  
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Jackie
May 7, 2012 at 5:01 pm Permalink Reply

I didn’t go this year but I already have the cover-up lie planned for next time. I’ll just say it’s a music or viola camp, I’d even have the fake flyer and registar thingy done by then.

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1. Victoria (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 5:17 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Hmm, this makes me want to go to music camp now. Good idea!
  
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2. jill (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 5:38 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  viola players are awesome. i could use this lie except my parents would be so excited i have actually picked up my viola again and i’d hate to disappoint them in that regard.
  
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  1. Laura (member)
    May 10, 2012 at 8:22 pm Permalink Reply
    
    viola players unite!
    
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3. Elise (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 6:45 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  So…this one time at Band Camp….
  
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Stacey (member)
May 7, 2012 at 5:15 pm Permalink Reply Report user

Everyone I work with thinks that I went to a “yoga retreat.”

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1. Liz (member)
  May 7, 2012 at 10:58 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  The retreat involved yoga at some point, so!
  
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  1. Stacey (member)
    May 8, 2012 at 2:36 am Permalink Reply Report user
    
    Exactly. So just because I chose to take a nap during that activity, it doesn’t mean it was a complete lie.
    
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jill (member)
May 7, 2012 at 5:37 pm Permalink Reply Report user

taking some serious notes to get myself to the next a camp.

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discospider (member)
May 7, 2012 at 6:20 pm Permalink Reply Report user

Definitely called it a leadership conference to my professors. Told my mom I was going to hang out with friends of mine from the internet. My sister, who knows a bunch of my internet friends (from another part of the tubes) inquired after them, I told her “not those friends”, so I’m pretty sure my sister figured it out since I’m out to her and my facebook is covered in pictures of me and a bunch of gay ladies now. So I only had to actually lie to my teachers, which honestly I don’t even think counts as a lie cause it wasn’t to avoid any work.

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1. Paper0Flowers (member)
  May 8, 2012 at 12:43 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  I’ve had like 4 people ask if you’re my girlfriend because of our matching profile pics. Including my mom. OOPS.
  
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  1. Digger (member)
    May 9, 2012 at 3:41 am Permalink Reply Report user
    
    And here I was hoping exactly that! I was al like “Aww..An A-Camp love storyyyyy” Oh well. It was still fun to meet ya’ll
    
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  2. discospider (member)
    May 11, 2012 at 2:06 pm Permalink Reply Report user
    
    Haha, I’ve had a few friends ask questions about that picture too. Digger, it is a love story, just a very platonic one. I love all my ASSchat people to death!
    
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Elise (member)
May 7, 2012 at 6:52 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I told all my friends where I was going and even some of the straight ones went ballistic when they heard Harto was going to be there.

I told my parents I was going camping, but didn’t really specify. Later, my mother stalked my facebook and said:

1. So, darling, which of them is your girlfriend?

2. You should maybe privatize some of your shit if you don’t want every person on your facebook to know you’re giant homo…based on the pictures, it’s kinda obvious you were at gay camp.

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Carrie (member)
May 7, 2012 at 7:54 pm Permalink Reply Report user

Next year:

Me in my head: A-Camp is a Professional Women’s Networking Extravaganza, Professional Women’s Networking Extravaganza… Coo.

All bags are packed, standing by the doorway, me to my mom: Hey Mom, I’ll be out of town for a few days. I’m going to a Professional Women’s Networking Extravaganza, Gay-Camp. Uh.. A-Camp….SEE YOU LATER!!! **Runs out of the door in my Tevas**

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Katiger (member)
May 7, 2012 at 9:26 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I’m still waiting for my family to work out that the scenery in all the camp photos I’m in looks nothing like the central coast of NSW, Australia (when they asked me where I was going I said “Oh up the coast somewhere…”) and remarkably like a mountain near LA.

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1. Emma (member)
  May 8, 2012 at 7:31 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  haha really? That’s the best. They didn’t know you were leaving the continent?
  
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  1. Katiger (member)
    May 9, 2012 at 3:43 am Permalink Reply Report user
    
    Heh yeah not that I care if they know I went to camp I just figured they’d make a big deal about me going overseas.
    
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    1. discospider (member)
      May 11, 2012 at 2:08 pm Permalink Reply Report user
      
      Because it’s super crazy awesome, you mean?
      
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2. dizzy (member)
  May 9, 2012 at 6:00 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  Grrl, I salute you.
  
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Ami (member)
May 7, 2012 at 9:40 pm Permalink Reply Report user

When Jess was asking her boss for time off to go to camp I told her to say it was for a “networking event” I think.

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1. Jess (member)
  May 9, 2012 at 5:40 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  i told him i was going to a school reunion LOL
  
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Becca (member)
May 7, 2012 at 10:14 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I ran into a classmate on the plane to camp and told her that I was going to an internet gathering and then told her that it was definitely not sketchy. I don’t think she believed me..

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Kali
May 8, 2012 at 2:06 am Permalink Reply

Not Camp related (I was several thousand miles away at the time) but whenever I was sneaking off to spend my lunchbreak eating my girlfriend’s face in the local gay bar (wasn’t out at work for discriminatory reasons) I told my boss I was “going to the vegan cafe” because I knew it was the one place apart from the gay bar where he’d never check on me

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1. Emma (member)
  May 8, 2012 at 7:32 am Permalink Reply Report user
  
  what kind of boss checks up on where you are having lunch? Sounds like a weird situation.
  
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raptor (member)
May 8, 2012 at 3:21 am Permalink Reply Report user

I didn’t tell my parents at all what I was doing but when my mother asked, she was like ‘and it’s all women? it’s not some BIG LESBIAN THING is it?’ (you know where we dance around fires naked and lure innocent straight young women into the dark cultish ways of The [[Real]] L Word & granola & smirking & not wearing bras).

I told my mother there might be some lesbians, but it wasn’t about the lesbians, it was a purely educational venture. Educational.

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Paper0Flowers (member)
May 8, 2012 at 12:49 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I describe(d) Autostraddle to people who didn’t know I’m a giant homo as a feminist website, so by that extension it was a feminist retreat that I went to. I told family that I was going for a “girls’ weekend to California” to celebrate end of semester, and I told my professor that I had pre-existing travel arrangements to California so that I could have my final exam moved a day early.

Upon coming home, though, A-Camp indirectly became my way of coming out to my mom.

“So, what camp did you go to?”
“I’ll…talk to you later about that.”
“Why? Did you go with your new secret boyfriend or something?”
“*sigh* Girlfriend. I have a girlfriend, and no, she didn’t go.”
//life-altering moment\\

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1. discospider (member)
  May 11, 2012 at 2:10 pm Permalink Reply Report user
  
  I’m still so happy for you about this!
  
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Caitlin (member)
May 8, 2012 at 9:50 pm Permalink Reply Report user

Ugh, that picture of you all just really makes me wish I could have gone to Camp…

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Kiyo (member)
May 12, 2012 at 8:56 pm Permalink Reply Report user

I really REALLY wanted to go to this but High School got in the way and, more importantly, I have the type of mother that needs to know whether I will be eating with a spoon or a fork at dinner (and whether my FRIENDS will be eating with a spoon or a fork at dinner) before she will even consider the thought of letting me go. Lying is no use because she is notoriously suspicious everything. Yeah. I have one of those. And I’m not out, so that wasn’t something I wanted to get into.
GAH! I live in California so it was so close, yet so very very far away. (In fact, the first thing I thought when A-camp was announced was how close it was going to be to where my Senior grad-trip was going to be. That’s how badly I wanted to go.)

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Lenny.C (member)
May 24, 2012 at 3:05 pm Permalink Reply Report user

Lol, Lesbian Christian Feminism Camp has to be my favourite. I’m in England, so I’d have the easiest excuse ever, going on holiday. I’d like to think I wouldn’t have to lie to my friends and family, but I would have to lie to the people I work with. Kinda sad really.

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