A Coming Out

TW: mention of verbal/emotional abuse

At my doctor’s appointment my mom said there was a gun in the house.

It’s a common question that doctors ask for safety reasons: “Do you have a gun in the home?” I felt embarrassed and startled by my mom’s answer. I felt unsafe.

My mom began dating a woman a year or two after my parent’s divorce. I was six, so the fact that this person was a woman wasn’…