Family Heart: A Memoir of When Our Son Came Out

What happens when a mother finds out her son is gay? Robb Forman Dew's account of that moment in her life, and of the subsequent journey she makes with her family from confusion to a clear and powerful commitment, is a book everyone should read. In this extraordinarily honest examination of maternal, family, and community attitudes toward homosexuality, Robb Dew not only wrestles with her own mistakes and dreams, but moves us to reflect on the American attitude in general. Family happiness was a subject Robb Dew believed she understood in all its complexities - until one spring day when her son told her he was gay. In The Family Heart, she navigates deep emotional waters in order to accommodate this knowledge, turning her attention to her own husband and two sons and the events that began for them three years ago. It was a soft day in May, and her older son, Stephen, was home from his sophomore year at college when he told her, "I think I might be gay....No, that's not what I mean. I mean I am gay." This moment, so difficult to remember because it left them both moving into uncharted territory, began a process of evolution in the family - of love and enlightenment and deeper acceptance that has left no family member untouched. The Family Heart is a book like no other - a supportive family memoir about a son's coming out, a book that looks deep into all our hearts.