Family Reunion of Jesse Henry Nix

The family reunion was fun, mostly because of the unexpected thing that happened.

I saw Aunt Donna, my Grandpa's sister, and said hello. My dad and Aunt Donna were really close and so I feel a certain connection to her. When I used to live in Provo, I used to visit her once a month and have dinner with some cousins. I learned from her to like salad and tell people where to sit at dinner parties.

She looked at Brian and said, "Now, who do you belong to?" referring to a family member. Brian looked at me uneasily and I said, "This is my boyfriend, Brian." It didn't seem to faze her and we kept talking.

Then Aunt Donna asked, "So, how is your love life?"

Me: "It's great."

Aunt Donna: "Well, where is she?"

I was dumbfounded. Didn't I just introduce Brian as my boyfriend? I guessed she missed it.

Me: "I don't know if you know or not, but I'm gay and this is my boyfriend Brian."

Aunt Donna: "Oh!"

Now the gay thing fazed her. At least I think it did. To steer off any feelings of awkwardness, I kept talking and told her we just bought a house and were renovating it. I prevented any awkwardness, but it was interesting. But that's not the end of the story...

The person in charge had each child of Jesse Henry Nix (my great-grandfather) introduce themselves and their families in front of everyone. When Aunt Donna went, she had two men sit next to her. One was her son and the other was married to her daughter. Her son spoke about each of this children and in describing one of them, he said, "Steve and his partner live in California..."

Brian and I immediately looked at each other! There were other gays in my family! Aunt Donna has a gay grandson! I should have found the guy and talked to him about his son, but I was distracted by other things. I'm going to ask Aunt Wendy if she knows anything about this gay cousin of mine!

When it was our families turn to go up, I commented to Brian, Russell, and Jennie that I was interested to see how Dad would introduce Brian. I was hoping he'd say "partner" or "boyfriend". Instead, Dad said, "This is my son Jesse and his friend Brian." That was it. When Russell confronted him about it (I asked him to do it), Dad said, "I was trying to be as discreet as possible."

That statement kinda hurt my feelings and I was kinda upset with Dad. I think he may always have a problem with me being gay and never will fully accept it. Of course he accepts me and loves me and that's the most important thing he can do. He also likes Brian and doesn't treat him any differently. But I know my Dad wishes things were different and he may hope that things will change one day.

Mom's different. I know she wishes things were also different, but has accepted that things aren't going to change. While she can talk to me about gay things, Dad has a hard time with it. I don't think there's anything I can ever do about that.

Also at the family reunion, Amy said to Carly, "Look at Uncle Jesse and Uncle Brian." That made me feel really good.




















All pictures are here.