So, I was raised in a conservative household, where God is the priority. It must come before anything else. So when I realized I wasn't straight, I quickly understood that if I wanted to keep my parents love, there's no "coming out" for me. (Not like I think they haven't noticed, we just don't talk about it)

So whenever I'm talking to a potential partner and we touch that topic and I say "hey, so, I'm never coming out to my parents, and I made my peace with that. Can you?" They ALWAYS either get mad of me "being ashamed of them" or they say something along the lines of "But it's your parents, they'll love you anyways!"

It's frustrating because I can't explain how much that's not true. They love their god before anything else. That's their true unconditional love. People don't understand how much the "parents love is unconditional" is a myth. And like I said, I'm at peace with that right now (who knows in the future). But it's frustrating when people try and make me challenge that love just cause they think it's "unconditional".

This is a topic I've internalized since I was a teen. This is a great piece, by the way. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed reading it.