Growing up, I saw gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and questioning people marginalized, shut out, and excluded. This bothered me a great deal. I knew they had done nothing wrong. I identify as a straight woman. When I married my husband (a straight man) in 2005, he had three daughters that I was about to raise. I asked him, “How would you feel if one of your daughters were a lesbian?” He replied, “That would be awesome!” I knew then that he was a good person.
While none of our teens has come out to us, we have raised them to believe that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered is absolutely okay. Hopefully soon, we will become a foster/adoptive family. It is our goal to provide a permanent, safe home and an accepting, caring family for a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered teen. Some people think we are crazy for this, but we don’t care what they think. This is definitely a challenge in rural western Illinois. It is not exactly an accepting climate all of the time. But our family feels we are up for this challenge.
