Well, I'm not going to tell you the whole story about my family problems growing up -- dad committing adultery, messy divorce, re-marriage to his former mistress who turned into the evil stepmother, straight out the Brothers Grimm -- but it wasn't good.
But in my mid-20s I moved to a new city to start a job and asked around amongst friends for house-shares. I was put in touch with a friend of a friend, a vicar. I thought I would use the spare room as a base for a couple of weeks while I found something more suitable, I mean I'm not exactly a wild child, but living in a vicarage and being on my best behaviour?
I ended up living there for 18 months. The vicar was gay and his boyfriend later moved in too, so I lived with a gay couple, who were so lovely, so kind, so caring.
They were around 10-15 years older than me, not exactly a generation gap so sometimes they were more like my peers, simply friends, and sometimes, being that wee bit older, they were more parental.
They (a gay couple) would make far better parents to any child than my own heterosexual parents ever did.
In fact, it really makes me mad when I see news stories (it's been in the news recently in the UK, because a Catholic adoption charity is threatening to close if it is not allowed to continue discriminating against gays), to know that there are children in need of homes, and there are gay couples willing and more than able to give them homes, give them love, and there are some people who disagree with that. The losers are the children. And that's not right.
Well, I'm not going to tell you the whole story about my family problems growing up -- dad committing adultery, messy divorce, re-marriage to his former mistress who turned into the evil stepmother, straight out the Brothers Grimm -- but it wasn't good.
But in my mid-20s I moved to a new city to start a job and asked around amongst friends for house-shares. I was put in touch with a friend of a friend, a vicar. I thought I would use the spare room as a base for a couple of weeks while I found something more suitable, I mean I'm not exactly a wild child, but living in a vicarage and being on my best behaviour?
I ended up living there for 18 months. The vicar was gay and his boyfriend later moved in too, so I lived with a gay couple, who were so lovely, so kind, so caring.
They were around 10-15 years older than me, not exactly a generation gap so sometimes they were more like my peers, simply friends, and sometimes, being that wee bit older, they were more parental.
They (a gay couple) would make far better parents to any child than my own heterosexual parents ever did.
In fact, it really makes me mad when I see news stories (it's been in the news recently in the UK, because a Catholic adoption charity is threatening to close if it is not allowed to continue discriminating against gays), to know that there are children in need of homes, and there are gay couples willing and more than able to give them homes, give them love, and there are some people who disagree with that. The losers are the children. And that's not right.