Growing up, my favorite Aunt was always my gay Aunt Flo. When I talk about my Aunt Flo, I always have to refer to her as my Gay Aunt Flo or my Real Aunt Flo to new people in conversation . Mostly because lots of people refer to their period as ‘Aunt Flo’, but not I. I am talking about my actual Aunt Flo.
There are a lot of reasons I look up to my Aunt Flo. A lot of them stem from the respect I have for her, because I’m sure it was quite difficult to come out of the closet in this one horse town. She went through a lot of sideways glares to proudly be the person she is. She and her partner have been together quite a while, and their names even rhyme.
(Florencetta and Loretta, I kid you not.)
Before I was old enough to respect her in that sense, back when I just knew I had gay Aunt Flo and she was cool as a cucumber, she reigned supreme to me.
You see, while most of my relatives gave me strange Christmas gifts like socks or one-eyed babydolls, my Aunt Flo gave the coolest presents.
She had a giant Santa Clause-like bag that she would fill with either money or lottery tickets, and you got to draw one. If it was a lottery ticket (scratch-off), you got to scratch it, and whatever money you won (or didn’t win) was ours. If that year, she had the cash bag you just stuck your hand in the bag with money (mostly $1’s and $5’s) and drew out your Christmas present. One year, I got $100.In retrospect, the idea of letting all your nieces and nephews draw a scratch off ticket out of a bag for Christmas is pretty hilarious.
Awesome presents or not and laughing aside, my gay Aunt Flo has always been an important figure in my life. She has a fabulous attitude, and she is just a wonderful person. I have an overwhelming respect for her, and an overwhelming respect for the gay community.
You see, I was raised in a home where anything and everything was accepted. So sometimes it’s hard for me to understand when people have skewed views that involve hating people for their gender, race, sexuality, religion, or any other component for which a person should never be judged.
My mother is several years younger than my Aunt Flow, and she was woken up several times as a child from the sound of a brick or a rock being thrown through the window of the room she shared with Flo. This happened on way more than one occasion.
It was serious. Very serious acts of hatred. And it really makes me sick thinking about anyone being so fueled by narrow-mindedness.
Narrow minds (and the people that possess them) have always been silly to me. It was always silly to my mother (Flo’s sister). Yet, so many people in this one-horse town are marred with bigotry. And it makes me so sad.
My Aunt Flo is fabulous woman. She is thoughtful, intelligent, giving, homosexual,and hardworking. To me, none of those things stands out any farther than the other.
(And if you’re wondering, she still gives out scratch-off lottery tickets for Christmas. I won $25 last year. Woot!)
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