There are two other groups of people who need to be acknowledged at the outset: the parents, like mine, who supported and affirmed me as a gay man when I came out; the parents who each and every day support their children to be who they are; and the parents who provide the unconditional love that is the bedrock of growing up confident and happy. I grew up in a religious, churchgoing household in the era of homosexual law reform. There were plenty of negative messages for me to hear as I grappled with my sexuality and the challenge of feeling very different from those around me. When I finally gathered the courage to come out to my parents, I was met with love. Whatever fears that they held for me, and I know that they did, they were full of acceptance. My father—who is no longer with us—I knew, would find it hard, but he expressed only one thing that he was annoyed about—he'd heard it from someone else and not from me. If that was as bad as it got, then I knew I was a lucky person. But not everybody is or was so lucky.