Family ties
JAY BERNARD PONDERS THE MEANING OF FAMILY IN THE UNLIKELY SETTING OF A MISSISSIPPI STRIP CLUB
JAY BERNARD
The other day I received a call from my aunt. She lives in Jamaica and she’d heard through the grapevine that I was queer. Her phone call was the first I’d ever had from a relative with the explicit intention of letting me know that she knew. I didn’t expect it, I didn’t desire it, I didn’t know what to do with it. She wanted to know why I had cut myself o‘. Why I had changed my name. Why I looked so di‘erent on my website. And because it was the crack of dawn (or, 10 in the morning for everyone else), and because I was standing in the bathroom with a hangover, and because I gave up on being close to my family about a decade ago, I said thanks for calling and have never phoned her back.