Amazon.com Review
How do people come out of the closet to their families and their own children? These true stories of lesbian and gay parents opening up with their children are both heartbreaking and heartwarming, but above all, they are honest. The stories explore such questions as How does one begin? Why do some children react well while others never accept the truth? Why do these parents feel they must risk changing their child's world by telling them? For anyone sensitive to the dilemma of explaining a socially difficult subject to a child, this is an excellent book.
From Publishers Weekly
MacPike, an English professor at California State University, tackles the perplexing problems lesbians and gays face in coming out to their children. The first-person accounts she collects bypass typical psychotherapy parlance and intellectual analyses, cutting directly to the art of speaking--and listening--to one's children. The stories, bittersweet, poignant or downright sad, provide a window on the remarkable diversity in the lesbian and gay community. In a preface, MacPike's daughter, Gwynn Sawyer Ostrom, offers her reaction to discovering that her mother is a lesbian. Ostrom's initial fear that she might be expected to become a lesbian and her insecurity about her mother's lover are echoed in the reactions of children in other stories. A few, however, responded nonchalantly; for example, when Stephen Brammeier made his announcement, his boys answered with hugs and "I love yous"--and a request: "Could we please turn the TV back on?" Lesbian and gay parents will find comfort in these pages.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
