With Father’s Day quickly approaching it is important to remember why we should cherish all the parents in our lives. Accepting, loving fathers and mothers raise happy, healthy, and successful children. The following heartful message from a future father to his future child reminds us of what is most important in a good household and why acceptance and recognition of LGBT parents is best for children. Spread his message of love to family and friends to help build stronger families and communities!
Dear future son (or daughter),
It’s your dad. I can’t wait to meet you! There’s so much I want to do with you. I’m looking forward to the day when I can let go of your bicycle and watch you ride; to our regular Friday-after-school routine, when we stop at Baskin-Robbins to get some ice cream; to holding you tighter than the time before as you sleep serenely on my chest. I hope that you look like me, so everyone will look at you and say “you are your daddy’s child!” I hope you inherit some of my mannerisms, like cracking your knuckles when you get nervous and not being able to hide your facial expressions. But there’s one experience of mine I hope we never have to share.
As Father’s Day approaches, I’m reminded of how I seem to have disappointed my dad (and your grandpa) over the years; I was average, at best, to him. I wasn’t very athletic, I wasn’t very popular, and I wasn’t very into girls. Never was. And, to his dismay, I never would be. When I told him I was gay, I distinctly remember his reaction. Dripping with sarcasm, he said, “Shocker! Anything else?” I didn’t know whether to feel relieved because he seemed to have known long before I told him, or feel like even more of a failure because I hadn’t met my dad’s expectations for me yet again. He’s since come to terms with it and accepted it, but we’d never talk about it again until you’re born. That’s when he’ll tell me, for the first time in my life, that he’s proud of me.
Baby boy, I want to you to be whoever it is you want to be; whether you like women, men, both or neither. I hope that you are able to do so with no fear of anyone judging you or hurting you just because you’re “different.” And that goes beyond your sexual preference. You could be a hippie or a businessman, a jock or a cheerleader, the class valedictorian or the class clown; be you, and no one else. . . .