How would you react if your son turned out to be gay? -Luigi

As I’m gay myself, I think we have to turn this around: how would I react if my son turned out to be straight? Well, it would be quite a shock. At first I’d try to convince myself that it’s just a phase because, let’s face it, life’s not easy for straight guys. But I would reassure my son, telling him that I, and his other dad, will always love him no matter what.

I’d be happy that he decided to come talk to us, but in order to better understand the situation, I would probably end up going to one of those associations for parents of straight sons. I’d tell him that if one day he has a special girl in his life, he won’t have to be ashamed to bring her home.

But offering all my support doesn’t mean to overlook all the risks. I would warn him against the dangers of being straight, from unwanted pregnancies to fights in bars, not to mention the worst of them all: the obsession for football. I’d have to give up my dream of him becoming one day a hairdresser or an ice-skating champion, and accept the fact that I will probably have to iron his shirts and cook him dinner until he’s thirty.

But in the end I think I wouldn’t take it too bad. Life has often showed me that it is much richer than our own little clichés. Ask my mom about that: with a gay son, she thought she’d have hairstyling covered for life. And she ended up not even having time to go to the hairdresser, as she is too busy looking after my children.