Coming out and being out ... "David"

David jokes that he is not just out of the closet, he is out in the street. He is of medium height, very thin, and cute. He tends to wear buttons that say things like "princess in training." While he was still in high school girls would periodically flirt with him, but he just told them he was gay.

Boys flirt with him constantly. A couple of years ago I went with him to the grocery store in our small conservative town. We walked in and a boy said, "Hi...Daaave." (Of course "David" is not really his name, but he does hate the shortened version of his name). This boy left his mother to follow us around the produce section. We finally shook him loose. At the check out counter another young man came running up to bag our groceries and flirt with David. He piled cans on top of my lettuce and asked David if he found everything he was looking for. It was funny, but I frustrating at the same time. Had DAVID found everything was looking for? What about me? You know, the middle-aged woman holding the debit card? The actual shopper?

I refused the bag boy's help taking out our groceries and on our way out, I swear to God, another boy popped out of nowhere and followed us out to the car.

At first I wanted to think it was just because all these boys knew David from school. That turns out not to be right. We took him across the country once. It was not quite so intense, but wherever we went boys flirted with him. I had absolutely no idea just how many gay young men there are in the world until I started parenting David.

David does not seem to experience any need to think about how out to be. He just is.

Another post on coming out: Evan and legal realities