Lately I've been feeling the need to give back to the community and do some volunteer work.
In high school I did a lunch buddy type program called Youth Friends (YF). Basically you eat lunch once a week with an elementary student who needs a mentor for some reason. I loved it. My YF lived with her gay dad and his bf. In a town as small as the one I grew up in it's pretty unheard of but she was pretty well adjusted considering the shit she took on a regular basis. Anyways I had a really good experience and really got a lot out of it (including a dvd player in a raffle that I still use lol).
A month or so ago I filled out a really long application for Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS). Then the girl who works there told me about how they do a home visit. I live with my gf and this is Missouri. I got really worried that I was going to be rejected because I am gay. So I fired up my laptop and googled BBBS. Then I found links to lots of homophobes having a fit about their policy of not discriminating against people based on sexual orientation. Win!
So BBBS likes the gays. I am thrilled. My interview and home visit will probably happen in the next couple of weeks.
Only there's one thing...how do I bring this up? I am not generally a fan of just blurting out "hi I'm gay" to relative strangers but from the website I gathered that the kids parents
can opt out of letting their kids have a mentor that is gay. So how are they supposed to know? I am not at all interested in spending several hours a month with a kid that I need to hide my sexuality from.
Also do I need to "de-gay" my house? There's a rainbow flag on the fridge and a few other things. Mostly I'm going to go with no. Obviously I will make sure the alcohol is put away and the erotica is out of sight but I don't think hiding who I am so I can do volunteer work is for me.
I just need to stop worrying about this...I'm sure everything will be fine.
<3
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