Let's see. I came out to my mom and dad as bisexual when I was a teenager. My mom told me most people 'pick one or the other' after a while. My dad apparently forgot about it, and was surprised when it came up in conversation seven years later. When I reiterated that I was bi, and insisted that I'd told him before, he said, "I don't need to know this." So now I send him a greeting card every year on Pride Day.

I came out to them as trans when I was in college. My dad said he wanted what was best for me, whatever that happened to be. My mom was generally supportive and very curious. My brother was pretty cool about it. He said, "Well, the surprise isn't that you're coming out..." So I figure he saw it coming.

I'm not sure if they like trans guys better than bi folk, or if a few years made a big enough difference in the political climate that it sunk in for them, or if after I came out as one thing they were more accepting of another or what.

Neither of my parents are openly homophobic, though. I mean, they'd say they don't hate gay people, they have a handful of queer acquaintances, I'm pretty sure they vote for equal legal protection, etc. They just have some troubling ideas they haven't really examined.