I'm From Driftwood is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit archive for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer stories. New stories are posted on the site every Wednesday.
In 2004, New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey came out as a "Gay American." It made a lot of news, but it also started a conversation in many homes about what "gay" meant. One such example is Brian Hartigan, a gay father of two young children. Brian recalls:
And as a result of that, coincidentally, the next day my ex-wife called me and basically said my daughter and son were asking about what "gay" means because they heard that Governor McGreevey said that he's a gay American. And I said, "Well, what did you tell them?"
"Well, I told them to ask their father."
So I said, "Listen. This is a perfect opportunity right now for us to sit down, talk to the kids, make them understand what gay means, and it's a great opportunity for me to inform them that I'm gay as well."
Brian had his ex-wife and kids over for dinner and during dessert, Brian began his coming out conversation. After a few failed attempts to get the 10- and 11-year-old to understand what he was trying to say, he went for a different approach, which resulted in a hilarious reaction:
So I said, "So, the governor is a gay American. And Daddy is like the governor. So what does that mean?"
And my daughter with her pony tail up in her hair, she's looking at me with confusion and kind of a little mysticism and she looked at me and said, "You're the governor?"
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