My husband and I have been together for 35 years. At first, his large family was open to us as a same-sex couple. But as they became more involved with an extreme religious group, we felt less welcome in their homes.
Eventually, we cut ties with many of them. One of our nieces with whom we remain close told us that our 16-year-old grandniece recently came out as gay.
She was asked to leave home by her mother. She moved in with her father (her mother’s ex-husband), but she is still dealing with recriminations from the family.
We want to support her, and we think we could help her navigate the coming-out process. The problem: The girl has no idea we exist; apparently, we were written out of the family story.