My dad yells again “Paisley Marie Caluf Reem if you don’t get your ass down her right now…” I come around the corner at the top of the stairs and he stops. Tears fill his light green eyes as he says, “my baby girl, all grown up, I just can’t believe it”. My heart stops, I was so scared he would be mad because the dress has a slit going all the way up my leg, my boobs are pretty much hanging out, and it may also be all black and super sparkly; he’s always hated my sense of style. Instead, he wore a smile brighter than all the sparkles on my dress and that is all I ever needed. My date was just a friend, but my dad finds that hard to believe. My dad was always the type to sit on the front porch with my 22 locked in loaded ready to shoot any boy who came close to me.

Now, he isn’t like that, in fact he is the total opposite. Just a few months ago he brought a boy home from his work, for dinner, his name was Henry and he was cute and all but not my type. After dinner that night my dad asked if I had any interest in the boy, then he began to list off all these great things about him before I had even answered his question, but the answer was “no”. Not even a week later he brings in another guy, but this time he met him at the library. My dad doesn’t even like reading. Once again, a decent guy but not really my type, but my dad kept pushing it. He kept bringing home guy after guy for weeks, I felt like it was speed dating, but with my parents there. After each guy they’d all take me out to my porch while we enjoyed a nice ice cream desert and they would tell me a little bit about themselves then give me their personal information. It became a routine, my mom, and I would even make bets on how many guys he’d bring for me in a month.

After 3 months of letting this go on I finally broke, I was so tired of dealing with rejecting boys I never liked, I mean some were nice, but none were ever really my type. So, I approached my dad calmly even though I was quite angry with him, because I told him exactly 4 months ago that I was gay. I angerly said “dad you can bring all the boys in the world to eat dinner with us, but he’ll never be the one” My dad said in a defeated voice “I know that now, because I have brought nearly every boy in this county and the next into our home to have dinner with you, but you never even blinked an eye at them”  “right back at ya” I said trying to lighten the mood, we laughed together, and he apologized for being simply unreasonable and demining in that he tried to “fix” me. We laughed that night away, and he never brought another boy to dinner.

Now, he is bringing girls to dinner, and it has begun to get interesting. One girl I ended up really liking and now I am taking her to my junior prom today! It took a while for my dad to accept me but once he did he hasn’t even thought about looking back. I am glad my dad found his way to accepting me because I am taking him to his first pride next weekend. I don’t think he’s ready for this rainbow of a world. I love you dad, thank you.