Dear Robyn and Skippy;

Here’s my dilemma…. My husband recently became friends with another couple who share many of his interests and hobbies. I met them recently when we all got together for dinner, along with our children. I found them to be very friendly and engaging and was enjoying the evening. Sounds great right?

Well, at one point, their eight year old son (who was obviously VERY into comic book superheros) proclaimed that the Green Lantern was his hero. His mom told him he needed to find a different hero since the Green Lantern is now gay. (Since the recent reintroduction of the character…)

I was taken aback. My husband didn’t think this was necessarily homophobic, but I definitely took it that way. I didn’t say anything until we got in the car to go home, but it has been bothering me for two days. How should I have handled this? Is it better to speak up or keep the social peace? I did make it clear once we were in the car that her attitude toward gays was not something I could condone and it certainly wasn’t something I wanted our children to embrace (I’m sure she would feel the same about my tolerance of other people’s sexual identities).

My husband doesn’t make friends easily, so I’m glad he has this new social outlet, and they are very nice other than this one point. If this situation arises again, do I keep my mouth shut or try to diplomatically point out that we have a different philosophy? Am I a giant coward for not speaking up in the first place?

Closeted Gay Supporter

Check in on Wednesday for Robyn’s response and Friday for Skippy’s response.

Until then what say you?  What would you have done in this situation?