Family and football loyalty run deep, as Robbie Macaraeg found out when he came out on a Seattle Seahawks game day.
Robbie Macaraeg is from Bremerton, WA.
Washington means Seattle Seahawks and a family of fanatical fans, including Robbie.
Seattle Seahawks means gamedays with the family, and even though he didn’t really get the game, Robbie says he has memories of running around outside, playing ball, watching games with his whole family, mom, dad, brother. Great memories. Bonding memories.
Football was also part of his coming out.
When he was 17, he was unceremoniously by a guy he had been dating, and went home in tears. He didn’t expect what happened next:
I walked in, my mom is in her uniform, her jersey, her Seahawks jersey, screaming at the TV, “Go Hawks, no, no!” And I walk in just crying and she just stops everything, literally goes into mama bear mode, “What happened? Are you okay? What’s going on?” Hugs me, hugs me, hugs me.
I’m like, “Mom, I’m gay.”
She’s like, “Oh, honey, honey, that’s fine, but can we just wait till commercial?”
I was like, “Okay…”
And so I sat down and we watched the game together and then commercial break and she was like, “Okay, so tell me about this thing that you’re gay now?”
I was like, “Well, yeah, I’m gay.”
She was like, “Okay. Cool. Why are you crying?”
And I told her, “This guy, he broke my heart.”
And she was like, “Oh, honey, there’s going to be a lot more of that where that came from. Hang on, the game’s back on.”
It was just very cool that she was very open to me coming out. It’s also really exciting that we have that bond over football, over the Seahawks, which is a very prideful thing for me, not only being from Seattle but it’s our pastime, my family’s past time. We always watch the games together. So we have the pride of my team, and just the bond and so many memories that are tied with them as well.
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Originally published at ImFromDriftwood.com. I’m From Driftwood envisions a world where every lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer person feels understood and accepted, and every straight person is an ally.
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