[jsm00]

Hello, my name is Jen. I've been officially out for about two years now. I've known I was gay for longer than that. I didn't really accept the fact that I was gay until after I graduated college. It's sort of a funny/sad story. After I graduated college, my family and I went to San Francisco during pride. My parents said some fairly horrid things about the gay people we saw. I was angry by what they said. It was this and the fact that I had realized I developed feelings for a fellow female classmate that I really came to terms with my sexuality.

I hope to seek advice. Since I've come out to my parents, my lesbianism has become the elephant in the room with my parents. They tend to deny it. Not to long ago, my mother talked about Jerry Fallwell and Billy Graham. I explained my opinion of both men wasn't high because of their stance towards homosexuals. There was an awkward silence and my mother mentioned something to the affect of how homosexuality was clearly wrong. My question is, how do I approach my parents regarding this issue? Both of them are born again and of that generation that equates homosexuality with mental illness. They always go back to that Leviticus passage as a clear explanation of how God feels about gays. On a biblical level, I'm not sure of how to deal with it. On a personal level, I'm unsure of how to approach them. I'm afraid to. How can I create a dialogue.