Book ~ "A Family Outing" (2016) Ruby Remenda Swanson

From Goodreads ~ Ruby Swanson’s life changed when her sixteen-year-old son walked to her office, closed the door and with his hand still on the doorknob said, “I’m gay.” Despite her initial reaction of shock, fear and denial, Ruby became a public advocate for equality and acceptance of the LGBT community. "A Family Outing" is the story of Ruby’s experiences. She addresses the deeply homophobic time in which baby boomers grew up, the emergence of the gay rights movement and how the AIDS epidemic transformed the LGBT landscape.

"A Family Outing" is a memoir about discovering gay great-uncles and learning about their lives. It is about operating spotlights at a drag queen show and about marching in Pride Parades. It is about the discrimination that gay people continue to face today and what emerges from the direct, clear-eyed prose. Finally, it is the picture of a woman who endured taunts from religious fundamentalists and political protestors to become an LGBT advocate.

This is a memoir by Ruby, an Alberta mom, who shares her journey after her oldest son, Carl, came out as gay when he was a teenager in 2003. At first, she struggles but the book tells about the about the ups and downs of that experience.

Swanson doesn’t just talk Carl's coming out to her family and friends. She also discusses society has treated LGBTQ+ people over the years, from the AIDS crisis to Pride marches. She discovers other gay family members along the way including a member of Lawrence Welk's band and a drag queen in Toronto.

I liked the writing style. There was a lot of interesting information and it was at a high enough level that it wasn't too much information. It's amazing that it wasn't until 1968 that Canada decriminalized homosexuality. The American Psychiatric Association didn't remove homosexuality from its manual of mental disorders until 1973. Gays and lesbians couldn't join the Canadian Armed Forces until 1992. Same-sex marriage in Canada wasn't legalized until 2005.