A psychologist found that of the two-thirds of all parents who initially react negatively to learning their child is homosexual that some 50 percent of such families later experience improved relationships, although 40 percent don't.
Robert-Jay Green, PhD., executive director of the Rockway Institute, a national center for science and LGBT public policy at the California School of Professional Psychology, said in a statement that when gays and lesbians are making a decision to "come out" to parents that they should first ask if there is a potential that their disclosure will be met with violence.
Green said that in those cases or if disclosure would cause "irreconcilable conflict" or the withdrawal of "essential economic or other instrumental/emotional support" that disclosure should not be made.
There are additional complications as well when it comes to disclosing the existence of a partner. One of the questions to ask is if the family will consider the partner to be "a legitimate full-fledged "in-law," Green says.
That is a problem facing homosexuals serving in the United States military with its Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.
Some soldiers say that holidays are hardest. When other sailors were recording video messages to their sweethearts one sailor said she couldn't because her partner is a woman, according to 365Gay news.
Even for soldiers serving state side the holidays posed problems. Because when other soldiers talked about the special gifts they gave their partners or that their partners gave them, homosexual troops were unable to join in the conversation, 365Gay reports.
