No—well, I have a second cousin in Raleigh who is gay, but he is younger
than I am. It was, my father told me that this was an invitation for me
to talk to him about it. I said, "Look, this was 1957, I was 12 years
old," I didn't have a very good relationship him, it wasn't nasty, I
mean he worked all of time, I mean, I didn't see him very much. He was
very distant and I said, "What do you expect of me? This is just totally
unreasonable." But, he was very good about it. At the end of this
conversation, he said, "Look, this is fine, I have no problem with
this," and then he said in a very
Page 25condescending
sort of way, "You know, your stepmother is not as educated as we are."
And he said, "I don't think that she would understand this, so would
appreciate it if you would not tell her." I said, "Look your
relationship is with her. That is not any of my business, I will do
whatever you want me to do." It was interesting, she called me about two
months later, and she said, "Your father just told me that you told him
that you are gay. And he said that he did not want you to tell me,
because he thought that it would make a difference," and she said, "I
just want to tell you that it makes no difference whatsoever." It is
fascinating because she is a Jesse Helms Republican, but the one issue
that she is very liberal on is gays. I have had boyfriends over there at
Christmas, I have taken lots of gay friends home, it has never been a
problem at all.
In fact, I remember in about 1982 I had the most disastrous boyfriend
that I have ever had. A young guy who was a secretary over in the med
school who was partially crazy.