queerkhmer:Want a cute and heartwarming QPoC story? How about this one! It features a story abo

queerkhmer:Want a cute and heartwarming QPoC story? How about this one! It features a story about how a Bangali Muslim father finally accepted his gay son at his wedding:Arshad Hasan, 32, and Abbott Stark, 31, married on June 1 in Stowe, Vt. Gay marriage has been legal in Vermont since Sept. 1, 2009, after the state Senate and House voted to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto.Hasan’s parents hadn’t supported him as “their gay son”—and that’s certainly an understatement, he said. He wrote on Facebook: “I came out to them about 12 years ago, but they’ve been, frankly, awful. They refused to even meet Abbott when we flew halfway across the country to meet them.” Hasan’s mother didn’t attend the wedding; his father, Rashid, attended over her objections. Hasan’s parents are immigrants from Bangladesh. He described their opposition as tradition wrapped in religion.Many people have asked Hasan what was most memorable about their nuptials. “I loved all of it, and it almost seems too much to cram into my head to remember it all,” he said. “But there was one part that stands out in my mind forever. It was my dad’s wholly unexpected toast.” Hasan continued: “[My dad] confided in me that he would feel awkward at the wedding, not only because he’d never been to a gay wedding, but he hadn’t even gone to a non-Bengali wedding. So, we decided that we’d keep the parents’ role to a minimum. Nothing big in the ceremony, no program at dinner aside from the best men’s toasts.” “I had no idea what to expect,” Hasan continued, “and I was pretty sure I was not going to like it. But [he] went up there talking about me as his son, how he loved me, and how he wanted more than anything else for me to be happy. He talked about how he saw that Abbott made me happy, and that’s what mattered. Right there for the first time, he gave us his blessing. He said the things I’d been waiting to hear for 12 years right there at my wedding. It blew me away. Abbott told me to go to him, and I did. We embraced, all three of us, and I cried in my dad’s arms like I was a child. I would never have expected, and could never forget, this moment.Stark said in an email to Yahoo News that he, in contrast to the struggles Arshad faced, was fully supported by his family: “With the greatest gratitude we welcome their support of our relationship and the equal rights that we deserve as citizens and as people—no matter if they offered it early or lately! We were deeply moved by their willingness to share in the celebration of our love. I hope that the Supreme Court’s ruling allows many other families to show support for their lesbian and gay, daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, and so on in a similar manner!”(Photo © Karen Pike)YESSSS -- source link

More pics about