BigBen

I have a feeling Darren is going to turn out to be gay. I've suspected that right from right from the first mention of him.

Jeff's dad for the win! I'm glad not everyone is against the kids. Whew!!

Honestly, I do realize this is fiction, but I'm so invested with these kids that I'm living it along with them. Jack's parents' reaction is exactly what I was afraid of, back when I was his age. Fortunately, by the time my mother figured things out, I had been out of the house for several years, and she had dealt with a lot of stuff in therapy, so we were good. But Dad and I didn't speak for a decade after I told him I was gay, and although we have more or less reconciled, he still thinks gay people are in the thrall of Satan. Yet I have learned that the vast majority of Christians don't believe that crap any more than I do, and these days I have enough theology under my belt to be able to argue with him pretty effectively. I thought I had dealt with all this years ago, but boy, does it still hurt. Guess that means Ronyx is doing a good job, huh? 😢😢

This is so much like the family I grew up in, fifty years ago. Hasn't anything changed since then? I thought things were better, nowadays. These poor kids! This is not a complaint about the writing or the plot, just so that's clear. It's a very gripping story, and I certainly can understand why Jack, who's basically a good kid, doesn't want to get caught in the gears. It would just be really nice if kids didn't have to endure this same old bullshit anymore. 😪

British television seems to do a better job with gay characters, because so many British actors are out of the closet that it doesn't tarnish anyone's reputation to play a gay character. I've heard it said that in Britain, actors can come out with no ill effects, but politicians would lose their careers, whereas in the U.S., there are openly gay politicians, but a gay actor's career would end upon coming out. (Michael Ontkean and Harry Hamlin, two straight actors who played gay men in Making Love, didn't work for a decade after that movie came out.) My favorite British show is Torchwood, because of the way all the characters were screwing one another right and left. And the sex scenes worked, because all the actors were good enough to carry it off. By contrast, Will and Grace drove me nuts, because Eric McCormack made a very unconvincing gay man. (Though perhaps it wasn't completely his fault, because the character wasn't all that well-written, either, when you get right down to it.) Not to mention that the publicity for the show emphasized McCormack's heterosexuality out the wazoo. Granted, there has been progress. Madam Secretary has two characters, Kat Sandoval (Sara Ramirez) and Blake Moran (Erich Bergen), highly-placed State Department officials who aren't afraid to be themselves, and it has dealt with queer issues in a number of episodes. B.D. Wong also appears occasionally as the head of a gay rights lobbying organization, and his character is portrayed as a fairly close friend to the Secretary's chief of staff. But as far as I'm concerned, there aren't enough shows like that on the air.

Thanks for the tissues. I might just need another box, lol!

@valkyrie Keep calm and keto on, as we say. You've made some wonderful progress.

Another sweet story, Val! (Pun intended, lol!) (This is the first time I've encountered the LCHF/keto diet in fiction, to my great joy. This way of eating took 60 pounds off and reversed my type II diabetes.)

I suspect a simple, "He's my cousin," would have led to a much more excruciating conversation. But that Russell is both a looker and a superb actor, so despite the saying, I'd rather _not_ be related to him, if you know what I mean. (Though his grandfather and I are probably of an age, . . . sigh . . .)

Val, you are just determined to make me cry with these stories, aren't you? Thanks for making an old man's holiday season just that much brighter. ♥️

Lovely story, Cole, thank you (I am reading these chapters in rather haphazard order). My British ex told me that the English tradition was to start mixing your fruitcake or Christmas pudding in mid-November, let the batter sit for a while, and mix it up again on the Third Sunday in Advent. A fruitcake would be baked early enough to spend a few days soaking in rum before being served, Christmas pudding wouldn't go into the oven until the roast came out and would be done just in time for dessert. The Third Sunday of Advent used to be called "Stir-up Sunday," because the Collect of the day begins, "Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us . . . " I guess in the old days before powered mixers, it used to take a strong arm to stir up a fruitcake batter!

No, my eyes are only watering because I have a cold. Pass the tissues, please. 😁