Coming out for many teenagers is a challenging and conflicting time in their lives. Many of them hope that their families will be supportive and accepting of their identity, so they can live their life as their true, authentic selves.
While many families are progressive and open-minded, accepting and loving of their children no matter what, there are still those who are not so accepting of those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Unfortunately, this can cause major rifts and problems in families, and can even tear them apart.
Recently, one Reddit user opened up about a conversation he had with his 17-year-old niece who had come out of the closet.
The 42-year-old Reddit user shared that his niece confided in him about her sexual orientation and that he was happy and supportive of her. However, she added that she wanted to come out to everyone else this week — including the rest of their family. The Reddit user said he was a little concerned about some of the family.
He shared that his parents, his niece's grandparents, would not be so accepting.
While many people in the family would still be loving and open with his niece, he knew that his parents would not be. He also mentioned that his niece is being left a hefty fortune from her grandfather's will, as he is worth "millions and millions" of dollars. He told his niece she should "wait until they pass" to tell the family.
Unfortunately, her grandfather is a "homophobe."
The grandfather is so against the LGBTQ+ community that he has "flat out stated any gay individual in our family would be written out of the will." In addition, the Reddit user shared that to make sure the rest of the family don't "just split the money with said gay relative."
There is a portion of the will that states the money that would have been theirs will instead go to a charitable cause and be "erased from the inheritance."
Both grandparents are incredibly ill at this point in time, as well.
The original poster added that both of his parents, his niece's grandparents, are in poor health and do not have much time left. His suggestion to "wait until they pass" is not because he wants his niece to "hide who she is," but instead because she will "quite literally lose out on 7 million dollars." He would rather his niece have this life-changing money, rather than miss out.
While he feels justified, his wife thinks he's "in the wrong."
The poster's wife said he's totally wrong for trying to make their niece "hide who she is" and appease a bunch of bigots. And while he agrees that his parents are bigots, he also thinks his niece will regret losing out on that much money for her future.
People on Reddit had a range of reactions.
Many people on Reddit say that they can see how both sides are right. On one hand, his wife is 100% right that telling someone to hide who they are just to appease bigots and homophobes is totally wrong. But they also agree that $7 million would be life-changing for anyone. Many are not sure what they, themselves, would do.
"This is honestly an excellent case study for an ethics class," said one commenter. "My gut instinct is to say that you should never encourage someone to stay in the closet longer than they want to, but yeesh, that's a life-changing amount of money."
Some members of the LGBTQ+ community said they would definitely bite their tongue.
A few Reddit users who are members of the LGBTQ+ community chimed into the thread saying that if they had to "hide their sexual orientation" so that they could get $7 million from a homophobe, they would do it easily.
"I absolutely would have stayed in the closet for two years for $7 million," wrote one commenter. "Heck, if someone gave me that offer right now, I bet my wife would be on board with pretending to be platonic roommates for two years if it means neither of us ever has to work again."
Sometimes, people may not see the point at first, but that kind of money can do so much not only for an individual, but for the entire community, too.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
