What is it like to come out to your grandchildren?
A lesbian grandma has opened up about coming out to her grandson.
Karate blackbelt Sandy Warshaw recorded her story as part of LGBT media project I’m From Driftwood, an archive that aims to preserve LGBT people’s stories and history, to promote understanding and acceptance.
Ms Warshaw, who had children by an ex-husband, explained that she took up karate aged 53, later taking part in the 1994 Gay Games.
She said: “The first year I went to the Gay Games, it was very quietly, it was in New York, and I didn’t compete. I did security and medical coordination.
“But then Gay Games were in Amsterdam [in 1998] and I had wanted to go to Amsterdam. So I went. And so I had to explain to my world where I was going.
“I explained to my kids that I was going to compete in Gay Games in Amsterdam. And I wondered whether my grandchildren understood what Gay Games were all about.
“I was out to my kids… but how do you have this conversation with your grandchildren? So I was talking to my daughter and I was wondering so I threw it out, whether…I was going to Gay Games, I was very excited, whether my grandchildren knew why Gay Games.
“And what she came back with some weeks later was that she had talked to Keith, my grandson, about it. And he had no problems with my being gay and no problems with my being at Gay Games.”
Rather than being upset that grandma was a lesbian, her grandson was more concerned that she was currently single, having split with a partner some years prior.
She explained “He was sorry I had nobody who I was with and who loved me at that time.
“I think I just smiled. He’s a very sweet boy, he’s a brilliant boy, and he’s very sweet.”
