My parents live in the Bible Belt, are Christians, are very popular, and are very concerned about what others think about them. Also, they really love me.

When I came out to them, they kicked me out financially. Still wanted a relationship. I was the mature one and that seemed to shock them - that they felt guilt because their child was the bigger person. There's no better feeling in the world than being open and honest and proud of who you are at the same exact time as, for the first time, being financially independent of your parents. Mine were control freaks my whole life so it was a great feeling. As a side note, we had major problems because I was way too smart to be manipulated by my dad (who was very manipulative) and way too independent to be controlled. Also was too talented to earn grades/sports/etc criticism but it was heaped on anyways. This led to some pretty severe problems between us as I grew up since they wanted to be relied on and that just didn't happen.

Two to three years later, we are all on great terms and my girlfriend is invited over to all family functions. The biggest helpful factors in facilitating this process of acceptance are, imo:

• Time/patience
• Independence - you can't be respected as an adult if you're financially dependent on your parents; btw, I don't agree with this sentiment, but it's what I've gleaned from many parents including my own
• Maturity - this includes being confident about who you are and not allowing bigoted or hurtful comments to be said in your presence without a response, it includes knowing how to pick your battles, and being able to have multiple calm and collected discussions with your parents/family while being able to be the bigger person

I honestly thought my parents would be as bad as it could possibly get (and they weren't far from it initially), but now everything is really good. Not perfect, but still making progress.