Christmas

For Christmas last year, my father invited the sister of his wife. She lives in Marseille in the south of France, and has a son (whose name is Frank because she's a big fan of Frank Sinatra, she has portraits and old vinyls hanging on every wall, it's really weird). Both arrived a few days before Christmas and stayed for a fortnight. It was the second time they were visiting us, and we have also been one time in Marseille. They are a bit strange, just like my stepmother, but friendly though :) My father helps them because they are poor and neither the mother either the son have a permanent job. It's a difficult situation, she was goldsmith but lost his job in a factory and never found another one, and his son wants to become a dress designer. He attended courses at a school, but couldn't go any further as it is too expensive. So now he works as a phone salesman (you know, the people who call you at any hour of the day and bother you just when you have no time!). He has no other formation and can't find another job. He dreams to go to the US and become famous, but I think it is never going to happen...

Just a bit before they came (I found this out later) the sister of my stepmother called to ask for some help, because she said she was sure his son was gay, and she wanted my father and my stepmother to do something, to talk with him so he would change... Well, I think that one thing is sure, if you are gay you can't change! I think it's so ridiculous, how can people think like that'? However, my father and my stepmother told her that they would try to do something.

So, they came, and the first days everything was great, they had great time, everyone was laughing, my sister and I went with Frank to some friends so he would have some distraction with young people etc. He's obviously gay, and acts a bit like a girl, I don't really like it but I take the people for what they are. He's a good guy anyway, and we had a nice time with him. I had my exams in early january, so I had not a lot of time to go to my father, neither did my sister because she had a lot to do with his work too. So when we were not at my father's home, Frank had nobody to hang out with and stayed with my father, my stepmother and his sister. And that was the moment they choosed to talk with him. They told him that he had to act like a man, to behave like one, to cut his hair because he was looking like a girl, etc. My stepmother even told him "Frank, if you have a penis, it's not to put it into shit". When I heard what they had said, I felt so bad for him, it should have been such a bad moment! He was here for his holidays and finally ended up in a kind of educational camp. It must have been awful for him. We had no time to see him before his departure. Until my father and my stepmother, that were both very proud of what they had done, told me these things, I didn't know, or I would have done anything to avoid him this kind of torture, I swear!

I really felt bad for him, but I was thinking "Damn! he was here only for a fornight, but I'm here for life! I can't leave and go to another place, how would they react if I tell them I am gay?" I think it would be, and maybe will be really a hard time. That's why I don't want to tell them, at least for the moment. Anyway, untill I find a boyfriend, there is no reason, because they wouldn't be of any support or anything, they would just try to "change me", and it would be so boring and hurting. It's not a very nice situation. The only person in my family who, I think, would be ok with it would be my sister. Her best friend is gay too, and she is really ok with it, she hangs out with him and his boyfriend very often. I think she would support me.

I'm going to the south of France on the riviera to see some friends at the middle of the month, and I think that I will go in Marseille to see Frank and speak with him, to see how he is doing. It's a shame he was treated like that, he's really a nice guy.