Back home, nobody cares!

I grew up in a small town, a conservative place, where we had to drive outside the city limits to buy alcohol. Our family is known and well respected, in fact my mom and dad grew up there and even attended the same high school as my sisters and I. They kept many of their friends and made new ones as the years went on, which developed into a small community of caring and loving people. The older my sisters and I got, the more we began to "hang" out with my parents and their friends and gradually, OUR friends began hanging out with them too. We have a blast together, drinking, laughing, and playing around. We had a great childhood because of all the wonderful people who surrounded us and we have a great life now because of all the people who are still in it. There's lots of love to be shared back there, I look forward going home for that reason. Now can you imagine why it was SO difficult for Jill and I to come out of the closet? "OMG! Two gay daughters in one family...poor Ben and Rainy! Where did they go wrong?" They didn't. They did everything right. They made it possible for us to have the courage to explore what it means to be ourselves. They put our happiness ahead of their own, set their insecurities aside, and locked their fear away so that we could find our way. They love us unconditionally because they are our parents, our friends, and our support forever. The big news spread like wild fire in our town. Everyone was talking about it. Its great gossip: "The Bowers twins are lesbians! Whoa!" Sure it was a shock, especially because it was both of us and I was married to a man before, but in the end nobody cared enough to care. They chose not to care. They knew we were still the SAME people, living our OWN lives, but we just happen to be gay. They love us and will continue to love us no matter what. If there was ever any fear from our family and friends, I imagine it was for one simple reason: They never had the exposure. They lacked the experience of having gay people around, so of course it's a little scary or uncomfortable at first. What new situation isn't? It's something one has to get used to just like everything else in life. One learns to adapt if it's worth the effort and in our case, we were worth the effort for them.