X Factor contestant: Girls are put off dating me because my mum is gay
A contestant on the current season of the X Factor has opened up about his mother coming out as gay when he was younger, and dealing with people who didn’t understand.
18-year-old Jack Walton from Castleford, Yorkshire, spoke about finding it difficult when his mum came out as gay when he was 11.
He said: “It was a lot to take in when it all came out… She was still married to my dad then. It was hard to see that. My dad was heartbroken.
“Plus I was 11 when I found out and I got a lot of stick for it. All my mates were saying ‘Oh, that’s gay’, and I’d say, ‘Don’t say that about my mum’.
“I tried to explain to them what it’s like. And I’d say, ‘If it was your mum, how would you feel?’
“You can’t disown your mum. If she is happy, that’s the main thing.”
Walton, who still lives with his mum, and stepmum, said he had asked her at the time if she was a lesbian.
“She said, ‘I’m whatever you want to call me, but I’m in love with Jackie’,” he continued.
“So I suppose that sums it up. I wasn’t ashamed of anything. I just wanted to tell other people.”
He also said that sometimes girls were put off dating him because of his mother’s sexuality.
“This girl I really liked, she came to my house, and she found out about my mum and said, ‘Look, I can’t do this because it makes me uncomfortable’.”
