Acceptance and Being Confident: A Family and Relative During Gatherings
Gatherings is where people are being gathered to a place to celebrate something that is very special to them. For instance, birthday celebration or death anniversary of their love ones. Being around with your relatives somewhat makes young queer felt nervous and afraid to be judge according to their gender. Though, you cannot stop them from talking about your life because that's already became a habit of most Filipino people and your relative is no exception of it.
However, you are not obliged to talk or share some glimpse of your life because that your right and it's up to you if you want to share it. Additionally, some young queer especially those that are not yet fully accepted by their family felt loneliness and disappointment. They tend to hide in their room and choose to be alone because they don't want to engage in a conversation that will make them felt unvalued. I have a cousin, whose part of the LGBT community and when we found out that he/she consider herself as a member of the community it brings us mixed emotions. Upon knowing my cousin's real identity some of my relatives felt disappointed, angry and cannot digest the revelations cause they set a high expectations and already planned for her future. Though, as years went by our family slowly became open and accepting to what she really is, some of my relatives had realized that we cannot control them and the more we stop them from coming out they become more rebellious and doesn't listen to their parents.
Good things really takes time and that's what happened to my cousin's situation, right now she is fully accepted by our relatives and they are more supportive to her. He can now wear and do whatever she wants as long as she knows her limitations and coming out also boost her confidence, and knowing that we are here to support her in everything she do. In the present, whenever we have gathering my cousin can freely get along with our relatives. However, still there are some far relatives who cannot accept my cousin. And we didn't care much about their opinion or thoughts about it because as much as we want everyone to be accepting and understanding we cannot force them. Hopefully for the upcoming years they can open their minds and instead of backstabbing my cousin's gender they will change and become more accepting and open minded to the LGBT community.