Читать книгу How I Made My Husband Gay: Myths About Straight Wives - Bonnie Kaye - Страница 6

Preface

You may think the title of this book is shocking, but I wanted to make people think about the absurdity of the possibility. The sad part is that too many people still believe that this is true— we, as straight wives, have some kind of magical power to turn our straight husbands into gay husbands. Even in this day and age, people still DON’T GET IT. For the millions of women who marry gay men, it is quite confusing to understand how this happens… how much more confusing is it for people who just hear about it?

In September of 2006, a dozen of my support group members were traveling from Philadelphia to New York to join with others during my annual New York get-together to launch our first collaborative book, Straight Wives: Shattered Lives. At the rest stop before the George Washington Bridge where we freshened up, a gentleman walked over to our group of chatty women sitting in a passenger van. He started talking to us in a friendly way, curious about how we all knew each other. He began guessing if we belonged to the same church, women’s organization, or if we were friends traveling to see a Broadway show. We kept shaking our heads “No” after each question. He was truly puzzled. Finally, one woman replied, “We all have gay husbands!” The man started to chuckle. His next question was, “Were they gay when you married them?” He wasn’t chuckling then. This was not a new or original question for any of us. It’s a question that keeps women in the closet long after their husbands come out.

With all the knowledge and publicity on this topic, too many people believe that homosexuality is a conscientious “choice” that men make. And it is not unusual for people to look at us and wonder where we, their wives, failed in the marriage for our husbands to “choose” that road. For this reason, we decided on that day that the next collaborative book would be titled How I Made My Husband Gay. Of course, the subtitle is “Myths About Straight Wives.” Every woman reading this book hopefully knows that this is a MYTH. But if you still have any doubts or believe in some irrational way that you have anything to do with influencing your husband’s homosexuality, hopefully these stories will put your mind to rest.