“Yes, I like girls!”
Usually, I wouldn’t dare to go against my mother, for instance, if I come home after curfew I can kiss that month’s allowance goodbye. I can’t understand why I acted so boldly when I met this girl; I even spent the night with her on New Year’s Eve. At 2 in the morning, my mom called and forced me to come home. Good thing this girl picked up and calmed my mom down. I went home the next morning and all my mom told me was that girls should not sleep in other places, if you have a home you should sleep at home. I agreed with her just to get it over with, then I kept sleeping over at my girlfriend’s place. My mom kept calling but ultimately she was worn out. “I’ll let you spend one more night only,” she’d say, “then you have to come home tomorrow.”
I came home the next day, but my mom didn’t make a fuss as she had always been. She asked, gently: “Do you have something you want to tell me?” I was feeling on edge when my mom told me straight up that she had known I liked girls for a while. I was shaking then, my past self would’ve dodged the conversation, but at that time, I was exhausted. I didn’t want to deny it anymore.
“Yes, I like girls!”
To my surprise, she didn’t react too intensely, only told me that there was no way two girls could be in love, and these experiences I was having were just rebellion. She even told me that she knew someone in her past who liked girls and now that woman had a husband. I tried to explain to her: “I’ve thought about this a lot. I had to confirm it with myself before I came out to you.” The conversation was long. Afterward, we even talked to my grandmother. After some time, my mom did not express any opposition, though she didn’t accept us entirely. She started to ask how we were doing and took an interest in our relationship, so I opened up a little more. I wanted to show her that her daughter was still happy, even becoming more confident and so much more mature.
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Rồi Sẽ Ổn Thôi (“Gonna Be Alright”) is a project that collects coming out stories from the LGBTIQ+ community and their loved ones in Việt Nam. To find out more details or to read more stories from the project, please visit our official social media site on Instagram at ComingOutVN.
