By Ellyn Ruthstrom
My grandmother was an avid stamp collector and she attempted to pass her passion for the hobby along to each of her six grandchildren. I was the only one who actually stuck with it, and so would look forward to our occasional stamp marathons when we would pull out the albums and glue the newly-acquired treasures into the huge books. Doing this always put Grammy into a good mood, so I took one of those moments to come out to her.
When I was first coming out to people, my strategy was to compliment the person in some way and tell them that I felt lucky they were the type of person I knew would be supportive. I also would say that it was important for me to be open about my life with them because I didn’t want our relationship to be based on secrecy and lies. That usually set it up pretty well.
When I told Grammy that I was bisexual she was actually surprised. Since I had dated men since college and had married in my 20s, she figured that was the way things were. I thought the fact that I had the same female roommate when I moved from Massachusetts to Ohio to do my master’s might have been a clue, but seeing that Robin was originally from Ohio it made sense to her that she was moving back there with me. Plus, I had moved back to Massachusetts without Robin so that was the end of it.
After taking it in and asking a few questions, she just chuckled and said, “To each their own poison.” And that was about it. I introduced her to my next girlfriend and she was always respectful of our relationship and enjoyed the time we’d spend together.