Growing up in small-town Texas, I knew I needed to be in New York after my very first visit. I was giddy at the thought of living in a city where I could be myself, an out gay man, and mature as an individual and professional. So in 2008, only a few short months after moving to NYC, I came out to my parents. I don’t regret many (if any) things in my life, but I do regret not telling them in person; I wrote a letter, left it in the car and hopped on a plane back to NY. The months that followed were probably some of the hardest times of my life. Being a first generation Indian-American, there were huge cultural differences in my parent’s view of homosexuality; that it was a choice, unnatural, and I should keep it to myself and not come out because that would be selfish. I remember, within the first 4 months of coming out, my parents flew me home once a month to talk in person about my “situation” and those visits ended up just turning into 48 hours of a screaming match.

But like most things, it all became easier with time. Within a year, conversations were productive, minds opened and guards went down. It’s hard to believe that in the last 5 years, my parents have gone from wanting to send me to a sexual re-orientation camp, to openly telling our friends and family about me and my wonderful boyfriend moving-in together. Just this past week, my Dad emailed me the following when DOMA was struck down: “SC has spoken! Increase in awareness backed by legality. Indeed a landmark decision!”