Fox news fueled political bias that had been kept largely to themselves until they aged. I was disowned, neglected, truly hated and uncared for after my inadvertant "outing". I ran away from extraordinary bullying, physical abuse and medical neglect at 16.
Frankly I never had much thought of it all until just before my 18th birthday, circumstances (legal) relegated me to my (also late) Aunt and Uncle's home in Southern California. They were both unaware of the total tongue-lashing I inadvertently overheard my Aunt and Uncle belted out to them over the phone for their total child non-support. They helped me obtain my GED, and a start in college. They even arranged financing for my first humble abode (an older mobile home) with no help whatsoever from my parents.
I tried so hard to construct a bridge of understanding which only garnered tacit and insincere non-response from my parents. It truly hurts in retrospect they remained so entrenched, and left my older siblings with a lot of guilt for having been treated "normally" (and inheriting all assets, which one brother shared some of the financial with me) by them by merit of their heterosexuality. It truly makes a statement when the youngest child of the family has no normal grief reaction whatsoever from their passing, just sadness that all my efforts to try and make them show some caring for me was a failure. It made me truly realize that they actually went out of their way to not support, protect or care for me, never initiated contact, ever. It was my other half when I graduated from college that forced (and paid for) their ticket to visit for my graduation. I was less than flattered then, honestly, and I told Eldon that I appreciated the effort, but he saw for himself how detached they were from genuine expression of giving half a damn for the sub-human couple we represented to them. Eldon only later admitted they seemed damn cold and thankless for his effort after I frankly discussed that I appreciated his gesture, but would not welcome a repeat of it.
I hope for your sake and theirs that this doesn't represent a similar drifting apart. My mother would not even make a phone call in effort to persuade anyone of anything regarding me. She just couldn't be bothered, her thing was pseudo-religious objection shared by nearly her whole side of my roots. My dad truly hated this, just a macho thing. If your mom at least cares enough to call, give this some cooling off time.
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