My difficulties were not because my dad was gay, but because of how our anti-gay society views him and views my family. It’s not easy to listen to messages every day from the media, political leaders, religious leaders, teachers and neighbors who say gay people are bad or sinful or wrong. When they talk about gay people like that, they offend and anger me as well as my father and his partner, two men I love and respect.

If I could do it all over again, I would have talked to other kids like me. Sure, I knew vaguely that my dad had friends who also had kids, but I refused to spend time with them. I thought it was stupid that I would be expected to like them just because we all had gay dads. Now I regret not getting together with them. I know now it would have been helpful to know that I had some allies.