Conversations I Don't Want to Have With My Son
Conversations I Don't Want to Have With My Son
I think every parent has those discussions they don't want to have with their children. There are definitely a few I'm not looking forward to. Like the conversation we'll have to have the day one of our "friends" gets a big mouth and tells our kids the story how my husband and I really met. Or the one we'll have to have when my father starts telling stories of what I was actually like as a teenager. Or the ones we'll have to have about more serious things, like why my mother isn't a part of our lives. Now that my oldest son, at 7 years old, identifies as gay, I find myself facing a whole new set of things I just don't want to say to him.
"Baby, your blood isn't good enough."
In this country it is still illegal for gay men to give blood. And there will come the day that I will have to explain to my son that his blood is considered too risky, too likely diseased (despite his personal health) to be used to save lives. That if one day someone he loves, like his father, one of his little brothers, or me, is an accident and the family is asked to donate blood, he must stay behind.
"Sweetheart, you can't help other people have babies."
My husband and I went through years of infertility before our son was born. Although we didn't choose a path that involved donor sperm, many other people do. If he wants to help another family create children with a donation from his own body, I will have to explain to him that no, such a gift of his body is illegal because he's gay.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/Amelia/conversations-i-dont-want-to-have-with-my-son_b_1884723.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices