Welcome to Saturday Morning Cartoons, a segment where four artists take turns delighting you with their whimsy, facts and punchlines on Saturday mornings! Our esteemed cartoon critters are Cameron Glavin, Anna Bongiovanni, Megan Praz and Yao Xiao. Today’s cartoon is by Cameron!
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Cameron is an illustrator hailing from Ohio. When she’s not drawing, she’s probably very, very quietly having loud thoughts about: queer things, her eventual shop, what to watch next on Netflix, food, names for her future pets, and tumblr.
Cameron has written 76 articles for us.
So effing relatable! My grandfathers were gay and my family still never talked about it before I came out, it was just a big open secret. It was impossible to gauge my dad’s opinion, and I couldn’t tell if he was totally cool with it or me coming out would crush him and remind him of his dad leaving his mom when he was a kid. (Turned out he was totally cool and now sends me too many articles about legal challenges for gay rights.)
My mom, on the other hand, was completely in the clutches of tea party media the years I was in the closet and spouted gems like “North Carolina needs Amendment 1 to protect women from polygamy through sharia law” and “Well, if you’re going to let people marry whoever they want you might as well let them marry toasters.” I eventually came out because she drove up to a Chick-fil-a buycott after coercing me along for a day of errands and just sat there laughing at how great it was that the Chick-fil-a boycott had backfired. So my dad being difficult to read was not the worst thing going on.
Sometimes, coming out can be the ultimate anticlimax. XD
This is my dad.
I never even came out to him, one day I was just like “This is my new girlfriend”. And he was like “Nice to meet you. On the topic of ancient Chinese scriptures…”
I came out to my dad when I was 16 (maybe 17? I’m old, I can’t remember anymore!) and he said something along the lines of “Oh good, I won’t have to deal with any weird boys.” And that’s been the extent of our conversation about me being gay. And I’m fine with that! We’re a close little family unit, but we don’t do big discussions about feelings.
Haha! Thats sweet.
Though I don’t think ill ever come out to my parents. Like never ever…
I know I got really lucky and didn’t have to worry about what my family would say.
You never know, though, your parents might surprise you.
Nope. Its like a given… ive made my peace with it.
This is how I feel my dad would react to me coming out. My mom on the other hand, well that’s why I haven’t tried.
They’re very religious Christians and even back in high school, I heard threats of disowning and whatnot if I was gay.
Years later though, my parents and I are super cool, and we have the greatest relationship now than let’s say during high school and before.
I have no idea how they would react (mom, really) if I ever came out to them and it’s driving me crazy.
And I kinda was thinking about doing it when I’ll visit them in January but I’m not at all prepared for what the outcome might be..
Or hell, how to even go through with it
?
I have come out like… I think once a year since I was 20 with my parents? I did the hint dropping thing in high school (knew I wasn’t straight but wasn’t sure about the rest) and then doubled down by pretty much drawing a line in the sand of “I will defenestrate you verbally if you go down this path of bigotry”.
They are cool with being bi, even with being more interested in women. My mom held out for “late bloomer” over the asexual thing but I think at 30 its hard to argue the late bloomer clause. My brother doesn’t understand women at all and has both decided: I’m the biggest lesbian ever and so he must ask me why straight women do what they do or say what they say.
… but at the same time I obviously don’t know anything about women. At all. Ever.
We try to find good middle ground.
This is homestly my dad too, i feel like he is awkward talking about anything with me that isnt chores, family or.college so even if I was to tell him “Dad I am a huge lesbian” he would go “oh right…okay.Did you apply for health insurance/submit that assignment/apply for that job yet?
:^D
Hah, my parents thought I was before I told them. That was a bit of a shock. They said that they could tell from the kinds of people I was talking with and such. They were accepting and been pretty awesome, Dad has even been to a couple Pride parades with me! =D
I saw this earlier and was thinking about it today. Love it. I really like how you write a lot to go with the pictures.
I had no idea how my parents would react either…. Honestly I still have no idea how my Mum feels about it (probably neutral? who knows) but my Dad loves it. He’s very enthusiastic about it lol.
I can relate to this so much… I’ve been planning to come out to my parents at some point, but it’s just impossible to gauge their reactions, so I have no idea whether it’s safe to or not. Guess it’s not going to be anytime soon.
LITERALLY SAME! I’m bi, so his only question was, “When did you decide you liked girls?” to which I just replied, “It wasn’t a decision so much as a slow realization.” And he was like “Oh, ok. Can we go watch this movie now?”
#DADS
Thanks for this, it came at the right time. <3
This is also my dad? Like, I came out via letter, he wrote a nice letter back, and then we didn’t speak about it for like two years, when I had to talk to him about top surgery+insurance since I’m still on his insurance. His only questions were if the insurance would cover it, and what the estimated cost would be, and then he changed the subject to talk about hockey.