I'm so glad to hear that there are parents that do realize that there are worse things in life than being gay. Where I used to live I primarily hung out with people who were gay/lesbian, or bi. My mom eventually came to believe that since I was best friends with a girl who was bi (and already HAD a girlfriend), and was always talking to her on the phone, that meant I had a crush on her. What's worse is my sister told her that I did. One day my mom picked me up after I had stayed after for practice, took me to a parking lot, and told me I was never to see my friends again. I couldn't hang out with them or call them outside of school, and I was to try to avoid them as much as possible at school. The threat if I didn't? To be sent to the small town I now live in and forced to live with my grandparents: hardcore mormons. The reason? It's a learned thing. Get out and into an environment where I won't be around them and I'll unlearn what they have "taught" me.

I came to find that my bishop had actually planted spies in my school that would tell him what I was doing with my friends and if I was still with them. Two weeks later we moved, and she wouldn't let me go and spend the night at my best friend's house one last time to say goodbye. The night she forbade me to be with my friends was one of the few times I have openly cried in front of people because I couldn't control it. Funny thing is, now that we're moved I can talk to them and stuff.

I finally have forgiven my mother for moving, but I don't think I will ever truly get over her forbidding me to be with the only people I trusted, because I have had some pretty shitty friends. They were my first real ones, and she said I couldn't even talk to them. It's been over a year and a half and I still don't have a good friend.

Anyway, this isn't the same...and I don't know why I'm telling YOU, but THANK YOU for being someone who wouldn't put your child through this.