Oh my goodness, she haaaated it. (You woulda thought she’d be happy that I was dating a man finally, but no, I could never win with her)

Before either my brother or I had hit puberty, she would tell us tearfully that if either of us wound up gay, she would have failed as a mother. When I became a teenager, she would physically restrain me, pin me to the wall, and not release me until I’d tell her “I’m not gay! I’m not gay!”

I did a comic in 2004 called I Like Girls about coming out to her. Originally on the title page I dedicated it to her and to my then-girlfriend, but she was so mortified that someone she knows might pick it up and see her name in there (and thereby think she approved of this sexual atrocity) that she had me take it out.

I don’t have any contact with her any more and my life is much better for it.