Being Gay (How Does My Family React to This?)

My family consists of diverse religious views. My mother is a Roman Catholic while my father is a Muslim. In that case, as a child with a "peculiar behavior" as they quote it, it is hard to act as an individual in the community (as I was afraid being judged by other people).

My parents decided to follow Christianity as our official religious view, but no matter what religion we follow and end up with, I will still suffer and experience discrimination.

I learned how to defend myself from other people picking on me, but what really hurts me is the hatred I received from my family on my father's side. I totally understand now why they hate me because they don't allow gay people in a Muslim religion. (For the record, I have loads of cousins who have been beaten up by their fathers because they saw the potential of their son being gay.)

Well, this is just one-fourth of the story of my life. The story I am going to share to you is about how lucky I am with my family.

I have a very loving mother, supportive father, and a caring brother. I wanted to laugh about what my mother told me, that she made me gay; when I was still in her womb, she was praying to have a baby girl (since her first born is a boy, then she wanted a girl). It turned out it's a boy again but with a twist (hahaha now I am laughing writing this).

Growing up with my mom, I used to watch her wearing fancy clothes and sparkling shoes with some red lipstick on in front of our big mirror. So I guess that was also one of the reason for my fondness and for having a keen sense of style when it comes to styling and fashion.

On the other hand, my older brother is trying to make me straight (not because he is homophobic but due to the fact that he doesn't want to see me being bullied by other people). Now I get it! I realized he just wanted to protect me.

The person whose really motivates me to stand up against those people who always discriminates me is my mom. She is very supportive. We actually kinda have a sister-like-relationship.

I remember when I was in 6th grade, I joined a beauty pageant. My mom was very excited and my whole family was there to support me. I was terrified at first because everyone was staring at me, but in the moment, I heard my family's cheer for me. It really does boost my confidence. (For the record, I won and my family is so proud of me.)

A VERY OPEN-MINDED FAMILY. I feel so lucky having them in my life. I am on my way to my success and having them is my inspiration to face my struggles on my journey. With them, everything seems so much easier facing the challenges.

I always remind myself that no matter how hard people throw hate on me, I will always have my family's love as my shield that protects me.

Now, I am engaged to a very amazing, loving, caring man, with all the good characteristics I could ever think of in a man—Tomas, my dear. Having him is one of the best things that happened to me, too.

The story of my life is about the love I received from my family and a gorgeous lover. It turns out I have no time for dealing with haters because according to Taylor Swift: "haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate..." so why bother? I will just invest my energy to something good and spread love.

To my fellow Earthlings and to your future family—if you will have a gay son or an LGBT child, embrace them and love them. We are also human just like you and we also deserved TO LOVE and BE LOVED.