Dear Azra. My parents are super strict and really religious. I’ve struggled with coming to terms with my sexuality for years because of how I was raised. Well, it’s finally gotten to the point that I can’t hide it any more. I have to tell them that I am gay. How should I break the news to them?

Respectfully

Closet Case

I hate to tell you, Closet Case, but you are going to absolutely devastate your parents. The last thing any parent wants to hear is that they have failed as a parent. To recap, parenting is ensuring that your offspring contribute to the perpetuation of the human species. If you are gay, then you aren’t procreating, which means that they have failed as parents. Remember, your sexuality isn’t about you, it’s about your parents.

In order to come clean about their failure, you will have to make it pretty spectacular. Here are some ideas for coming out of the closet that won’t completely devastate your parents.

1.       Contrive to have them walking in on you while you are having sex with your partner. This will ensure significant mortification for everyone involved and, while it will get across the point that you are gay, it will also have the added benefit of never being spoken about again out of sheer embarrassment.

2.       Turn it into a celebration. Hire a parade of Drag Queens to show up at their church on Sunday and dance to YMCA by the Village People. Bonus points if you can get the local chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, because, well themes are important. They will help out you to not only your parents, but their whole church community too.

3.       Take them to your favorite strip joint and have them watch in abject horror as you get on stage and strut your stuff!

The long and short of it is this. Yes, your parents failed in raising you, but you still have a life to live. You deserve to be happy and no one who lived their life in the closet was ever happy. Just remember that when your parents bemoan who and how you are it is really their fault, not yours. So here’s one last piece of advice. Take everything from your childhood that was an indication of your emerging sexuality and put it in a power point presentation. Go through it all with them and point out what they had obviously missed. Remind them that it is their fault. But also tell them you are glad they failed because you are happy with who you are.

Never settle for a closet bound life,

Azra

***Disclaimer***Azra is not someone to take advice from. He’s not even human- he’s an exiled angel that gets his kicks dispensing horrible advice to people. Do not take his advice seriously. It is meant to be satirical and not to be taken literally.