PRIDE

so todd is telling everyone that he's going as a werewolf for halloween. and that would be a great costume, of course. but the reality is that his costume is even better.

he and i have discussed halloween costumes for weeks now. we visited a store early in the season and did some window-shopping for ideas, but nothing caught his eye. i started to hear things like, 'do i have to dress up if i want to trick-or-treat?'

i should go ahead and note that yes, i am one of those candy-givers who requires a costume. no school clothes wearing kids on my doorstep, please. i'm paying to be entertained, for crying out loud.

so, i replied an emphatic, 'YES' to todd's plea for apathy.

last week, haley, the boys and i drove outside our normal suburban shopping zone (to another suburban shopping zone, of course) to visit the mack daddy of halloween stores. we were looking for bits and pieces, but of course wound up with much more. even luke, whose costume was entirely complete, identified a number of 'essential' additions, such as a bullet wound. essential.

but todd, amid hundreds of costumes found nothing. haley and i each offered to walk the aisles with him and he grudgingly agreed. half the costumes that haley picked out, todd had worn in a previous year. and the other half, he shrugged at, 'maybe...'

until she joked, 'you should go as a cheerleader! put your hair in pig-tails and go as a girl!' and todd immediately perked up and said, 'i'll do it! that's what i want!'

whew.. lots of options for that idea, at least. of course, he chose the most expensive one. (haley was helping him, after all. and we all know that libras have the most expensive taste. yes, the most.) but oh my goodness, it's so perfect.

if it weren't for his bony knees and hairy legs, he may have parents thinking he's the one not in costume!

the day after we bought the costume todd and i got to spend a lot of time together, alone. and he told me that he's more comfortable around gay people than straight people. adults at least. he's tuned up his gaydar and is constantly demonstrating it to me.

earlier this year he hesitated about including that his mom is gay in his autobiography for english class. when the teacher gave him a perfect grade and asked if she could hang it in the hallway, i asked him what he had decided. he said, 'i put it in there. i'm not worried about it. i want her to put it up.' he says his friends all know anyway and they don't care.

and so, halloween night.. my 12 year old son is dressing up in a pink and white cheerleader uniform and delivering a little token of atlanta's pride celebration to the remote suburbs of dacula.

i couldn't be prouder.

d: open doors and candy bowls for my sweet son.
b: we have an open and accepting home.
g: todd's open mind and open expression.