Author | Leah Bernstein<\/p>\n
I always say that my life changed in an instant.\u00a0 Actually, there were three or four instant moments.\u00a0 In an instant, all that I perceived took a seismic shift.\u00a0 Of this, I am sure.<\/p>\n
The instant my first child, David, was born on July 27, 1985, I was no longer myself.\u00a0 I was someone\u2019s mother, and I felt a connection to my own mother unlike I had ever felt before. \u00a0Wow, that\u2019s<\/i> how it feels to love a child, to worry about your child.\u00a0 I had no idea.\u00a0 Nada.\u00a0 Zero.\u00a0 Goose egg.<\/p>\n
Mollie followed a few years later and was born on February 17, 1989.\u00a0 I had a boy and a girl!\u00a0 I thought that was the jackpot. Although I secretly worried and hoped she wouldn\u2019t ripen running around in a pink princess dress.\u00a0 Her first few minutes in this new outside world, I held a baby girl and made a mental comparison.\u00a0 Taken by how much softer she felt in my arms, I just stared in wonderment.\u00a0 Recalling my first-born moment, she was a feminine version of David. Rosebud lips against alabaster skin, long black eyelashes almost touched her cheeks; she rested comfortably in my arms.\u00a0 My mother took Mollie into her arms and said, \u201cWe\u2019re all sisters under the skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just for the record, this was not the voice of the mother that raised me. At least it didn\u2019t sound like her. Our relationship was strained during and by my adolescent antics. The characteristic of our bond persisted throughout my life as a young adult, so in an instant, that changed, too.<\/p>\n
Mollie came home one weekend.\u00a0 We sat shoulder to shoulder at my kitchen counter when she told me she was gay.\u00a0 Or queer. But not lesbian. It took me completely by surprise, and in an instant life changed.<\/p>\n
Mollie came out to her brother, before coming out to her father or me. I\u2019ve heard that David\u2019s response was something like this\u2026\u201dY\u2019know , my friends and I thought that if you were a gay girl you\u2019d be the best gay girl ever. So, which one of your girlfriends is your girlfriend<\/i>?\u201d They hugged. In an instant, I knew I had raised my kids well.<\/p>\n
Approaching age 60, a whole new world has appeared before my eyes.\u00a0 Thank you, Mollie and David for your patience explaining queer\/trans\/lesbian\/gay\/bi\/MtoF\/FtoM\/whatever to me.\u00a0 You have made me a better educated person, though it has not always been in an instant.<\/p>\n
We are<\/i> all sisters under the skin.\u00a0 Even you, David.<\/p>\n
All my love,<\/p>\n
Mom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Author | Leah Bernstein I always say that my life changed in an instant.\u00a0 Actually, there were three or four instant moments.\u00a0 In an instant, all that I perceived took a seismic shift.\u00a0 Of this, I am sure. The instant my first child, David, was born on July 27, 1985, I was no longer myself.\u00a0\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2065],"tags":[81,38],"yst_prominent_words":[2463,2202,2461,2465,2458,2466,2464,2453,2457,2455,2462,2454,2347,2456,2459,2468,2469,2467,2452,2460],"class_list":["post-1876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-lgbtq","tag-queer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6QBV8-ug","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1876"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11462,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1876\/revisions\/11462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1876"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}