Before I begin, I'd like to say how beautiful this blog is, and how it touches my heart so deeply, because it is created by our wonderful daughter, Mia. I am so proud to be Mia's mom.

That said, I am mother to Mia and her sister, two wonderful girls whom I love more than anything on this earth. And that, our youngest, Mia came out as gay two years ago is just a sweet variation on the musical scale of life, a wee step off the heterosexual path, that doesn't matter at all, and only seems to have made our life as a family so much richer.

As Mia's mom, I was not totally surprised when she told us she was gay. I had had a number of inklings over the years, little 'snapshot' moments ofher that stayed in my mind, an intuition that something might be different this time. It was a slow awakening, as I'm sure it was with Mia, but I finally wrote her a letter expressing some of my thoughts and feelings, letting her know that if she felt she was discovering new and different feelings about herself and her sexuality, her dad, sister and I were totally, 100%, fine with whatever that may be. We loved every inch of her whether she was gay, straight or bi.

In looking back I did have a moment or two of internal adjustment and growth with the dawning real-ization that Mia might be gay. As Mia likes to point out, and accurately so, "we grow up and live in a heterocentric society", meaning that there is no discussion about all the differences that may exist amongst us. When raising the girls in the '90s [which feels like the dark ages, now] gayness was never talked about. Nor was it part of the national dialect, as it is today, as in the issue of Gay Marriage, etc. So I had no context in which to put my feelings, except my Irish Catholic upbringing, which wasn't particularly helpful.

One memory I have is when Mia was invited to a "Leadership Council Weekend" in High School. Over the weekend, her teacher had shared with Mia that she thought that everyone was born "bisexual". I remember feeling uncomfortable about that because I felt her teacher was unduly influencing Mia when she was still so young and going through a lot of change.

But then, some months later, I had a 'light bulb' moment, as Oprah liked to say, and realized that what her teacher had said was fine, and even good, because her words would only resonate with someone whou could identify with them on a deeply personal and organic level, at the core of their being. In speaking about the issue, her teacher had afforded her students some space to breathe and know that whatever they were feeling was ok. And, for that, I am now very grateful. Though it would be some years later before Mia would sort it all out for herself, her teacher's statement may have helped her in some small way at a time she was experiencing her own burgeoning feelings of pubescent sexuality.

I believe so strongly that it does get better the more our individual preferences and differences are discussed openly and honestly, with both young and old 'coming out' and sharing their lives and their stories. The last ten years has felt like a great opening of hearts and minds. Theworld has become a very small place [with a billion, or so, people] and so many of us know someone or have family members or friends who are gay. They are beautiful people with beautiful hearts and beautiful minds and have so much to give to our world. All love is the same...same, love, same. (:

Harvey Milk, bless his brave and wise soul, said, "familiarity breeds tolerance" and it is so true! With each voice that is heard, gay and straight, alike, the world IS becomming a better place! It does get better! it does, it does!!

With love for Mia...with all our hearts, Mom, Dad and Nessa

Tess Glynn Furtado