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Amos Lassen wrote on 02/27/2011:

Johnson, Troy. “Family Outing: What Happened When I Found Out My Mother Was Gay”, Arcade Books, 2008.
Coping With Sexuality
Amos Lassen
We need more books like Troy Johnson’s “Family Outing” so others can understand what coping with sexuality is all about. Sure, straights have to cope but their problems do not seem as great as those having to cope with homosexuality.
Johnson gives us a book that is brutal in its honesty and yet drolly funny as he explores what happens when a young boy discovers that his mother is gay.
As a teen, Johnson was like most teens—obsessed with sex. His own coming of age was compounded when he learned that his mother was a lesbian. He questions her in his mind with the typical stereotypical ideas that many have about gay people as he questions his own sexuality. Like so many others who discover their sexuality—only this was not his, but his mother’s, he wondered if he was the only one to have a gay mother. He agonized and worried and he even reached the point of hating his mom. He struggled and eventually accepted her and actually became a supporter of gay causes and took on the causes that dealt with sexual identity. He, as a young man, feared the homophobia that seemed to be everywhere and was targeted against his mother. His life was one of pain not just for himself but for his mother. He has grown up to become a heterosexual male but he grew up with a gay mother during the conservative Reagan years when AIDS was decimating out population and homosexuality was considered aberrant behavior. His book deals with the larger issue of sexual identity but then again this is a unique story.
It was not an easy adolescence for Johnson but he describes it with both pain and humor and it reads very real and honest. Sexuality is no easy topic especially for teenagers who are the verge of so many discoveries. The teen years are years of anger and angst. It is only natural that Johnson experienced a degree of rage much like a mom and dad feels when first hear that a child of theirs is gay. Yet he managed to control his rage and his feelings and Johnson and his mother found ways to reconcile and understand and we learn what forgiveness is all about.
“Family Outing” is an amazing read and it gives so much. We learn of love and tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation and so much more.