How NOT to introduce your boyfriend or girlfriend to the family.

I'd just like to take the time to point out that this week's post comes to you from NEW YORK CITY, which is where I am currently being very overly-excited because I'm about to go and see Wicked on Broadway :D I am also about to go and spend every single penny in my possession (or cent or dollar or whatever they call money in the States), because I can, and how often is it that you're taken to New York for a belated 18th Birthday present?

Oddly enough, the mention of theatre seems like the perfect way for me to start my advice on how not to introduce your boyfriend to your parents. I don't know about you, lovely reader person, but outings to the theatre are rare in my family, and when they do happen, then my mum usually comes with me, because she's the one who's paying. This is therefore an ideal opportunity to blurt out to your parents while on the way to said theatre that you're meeting your boyfriend there, and you took the liberty to pay for his ticket on their credit card.

Of course, that situation isn't true for everybody, but this one probably is: for some, the temptation to invite your boyfriend/girlfriend over for violent sex on the kitchen table during one of those once-in-a-blue-moon periods of being home alone is just too great to resist. Depending on your outlook on life, this can be a good thing, or a bad thing. It's obviously a good thing because you get to have hot steamy love-making time with your other half, in a safe environment where you don't run the risk of being arrested for indecent exposure under a tree in Hyde Park.

It's also good because if your family return early and unnanounced, and they don't yet know you're gay, they certainly will when they walk in on the climax. While this may be awkward, you kill two birds with one stone: you've now come out of the closet, AND they've met your significant other. Of course, if you're home alone, you probably wouldn't confine your antics to the kitchen. Just make sure you've cleaned up after yourselves so that it's not overly obvious when your family return...

If awkward moments like that aren't your thing, or you think that one of your family members might come after you with a machete, you might go for the more subtle "Mum, Dad, this is my fuckbuddy, Greg" route. Clearly this is the safer option - at least you won't get an STD or Salmonella from your poorly maintained kitchen table. Then again, this still doesn't eliminate the possibility of being chased half naked down the street by your machete wielding father, so all in all, any way of introducing your boyfriend or girlfriend to the family is looking slim.

Perhaps the only sensible option worth considering is to not introduce them at all. Clearly if you live in one of those dysfunctional familes where machetes and AK-47s look like they could be genuine possibilities, apart from seeking professional help, it might be safer for all those involved that you just don't introduce him or her to your charming relations. Anyway, once you've left home and moved in with your fuckbuddy, you're free to have your violent kitchen sex without the risk of anybody walking in, and then everybody's happy.

I realise some of the scenarios in this post were a bit extreme, I confess I was slightly drunk when writing this, the creative part of my brain got the better of me. I'll be back in England next week, I'm sure I'll report on my fabulous state side excursion in more detail over the coming weeks :P In the meantime, feel free to send a detailed report of your other half's awkward introduction to the family* to homojournal@gmail.com. And if your experiences have been even more alarming than those I've suggested here, do write us a guest article and send that to the same e-mail address!

* machete not required.

The key here is subtlety...

To some extent, introducing your partner is almost like a 2nd coming out. Before you do this, your family may just assume that it's just a phase, that you're confused or you're just trolling them. However, once you introduce another person into the equation, that changes, because immediately your actions take on a much larger significance in your family's eyes (I mean, come on, now you're wagering other people's emotions; I suppose you could just be a psychopath though).

"I'm just with you for the LOLs."

As such, it's very important to do it right. The wrong approach could colour their opinions of your lifestyle permanently, forever lending your relationships a "Let's not talk about it, maybe it'll go away." air. For instance, if the first time they see your partner they're bent over a table wearing nothing but a nice shirt, they're unlikely to put much stock in your claims that it's a true, emotional relationship, and if they run into your love at the local S/M dungeon, they're unlikely to believe your claims that it's a calm, stable relationship.

Although this is likely going to be sidelined by the fact that your family members apparently frequent S/M dungeons in their spare time.

So, yes, subtlety. Tell them calmly, possibly with said person present so they don't think you're lying hide your crippling lack of success with both sexes. You could even have a BOGOF event, and come out at the same time, but that's really for experts only (however you become an expert in this situation). Hopefully if you've come out already, they can't be too unappreciative. Just do it subtly. This isn't something you really want to do brashly, mainly because if you come out badly, it's awful for you; if you reveal a relationship badly, it's awful for both of you, and having your partner unhappy is something that's (at least according to me) quite frankly unbearable.

It's actually the same as a heterosexual relationship, really: just follow the opposite of my advice on how to come out.

Which means sadly no French maid outfit.

For better or worse, you can contact us at homojournal@gmail.com.

Yours faithfully,

James.

I hope Cretzal read this post, and it made him very uncomfortable.