Me finding out that my friend's teenage daughter has a girlfriend
I had gotten earlier pictures were her daughter had gotten a haircut that read lesbian, which I thought was adorable but I was not going to say anything because (1) she's a teenager and she might be cishet and just exploring styles, and (2) while I know my friend is on paper lgbtq ally, she grew up and still lives in a rural conservative area. I've had a lot of people who live in contradictions and have heard them not live up to it when their children come out.
So when my friend messages me today and says her daughter is dating again, I immediately send "who is the guy" and chicken out adding "or girl" because my social anxiety goes through 10 million ways that it could backfire and not be taken as just a standard statement of "we can't assume gender" to something more because rural conservativism is some of the grossest hypocrisy.
The world constantly proves my worries wrong though and I immediately get a text back that shes dating a girl named Abby.
And of course, her parents are totally supportive. At least her mother is, and my friend didn't call out her husband so, hopefully he's also being cool.
It just brings me so much joy to know that whatever this girl decides on her sexuality in her lifetime, she has been able to come out to her family in an area of the country where a lot of people will not be supportive or kind. Not only that, but she's met another lgbtq youth.
It brings me absolute joy to hear something as simple as a teenage girl getting a girlfriend, because that gives me hope that despite out dumpster fire political system and anti-lgbtq sentiment that feeds it, millenials are still utilizing their collective open mindedness to transition the world into a better place and beating past statistics on progressive ideals.
My friend and her husband are non-college educated working class white people living in rural Trump country. Yet they are providing a supportive household for an lgbtq youth. And that just makes me happy.