CW: homophobia/transphobia, misgendering

Having the bravery to come out to your family isn't easy. It's even less easy when they pride themselves and think of themselves as people of faith. You know that any misstep, any poor word choice will be seized on and ripped apart, but...they're your family. You can't just leave them in the dark forever. You're an adult, you should be allowed to make your own decisions about who you and how you live your life. So you tell them. You tell them that you're not the person they thought you were. Whether that's a revelation of sexuality or gender identity, your truth isn't the same as the image they held up of you during your upbringing. And it does not go well.

There are tears, screaming matches, questions of if they went wrong raising you. It's an ugly scene. You thought that fight would be the last you heard of them...until you received a letter from your mother, asking you to consider forgiveness. She'd even bought you a pass to a support group specifically designed for people "like you", something to help reconcile your emotions and bring you closer together again. She swore up and down that all your parents wanted was the best for you, and that they loved you.

So when you got off the shuttle from the airport, bags towed behind you, and the realization sank in that you'd been driven out to a remote campground that gave you unnerving flashbacks to the time you'd snuck But I'm a Cheerleader into the house as a teenager, that familiar sense of betrayal settled in your stomach. This was a conversion therapy camp. They weren't going to accept you at all.

But maybe, just maybe, you could find something to hold onto here...

***

As the prompt may have implied, I wanted to explore some themes of questioning, repression, and denial today. Obviously, conversion therapy is a horrific process in real life, and I don't intend to make light of it at all. But I'm a Cheerleader is absolutely the kind of tone I would want to hit, something more light-hearted and focused on the bonding those who share that kind of trauma can undergo. I'm open to partners of any gender identity and sexual orientation, and happy to play someone of their interest across from them as well as establishing the world around them. PM me with any ideas or thoughts, and let's make a story worth remembering!