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Robert Madden grew up in Mississippi during the 1960s, and he was close to both of his parents. He explains that he could talk to them about anything. But here, he tells his friend Tom Kurthy about one topic that kept them talking for years.
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Piece Description
Robert Madden grew up in Mississippi during the 1960s, and he was close to both of his parents. He explains that he could talk to them about anything. But here, he tells his friend Tom Kurthy about one topic that kept them talking for years.
Broadcast History
NPR's Morning Edition 8/1/08
Transcript
RM: When I was ten, I told my parents I was going to marry a man when I grew up.
TK: [Laughs]
RM: And um, mother, you know, growing up in a farming community, she was like, "ask the priest honey, I don't know." [Laughs] And when I decided to start living openly, I came out to them again because my mother had always told me, "we can handle anything as a family as long as you tell us first. I don't want to hear about it from friends and strangers." So I told them.
And my father was very cool with it right away. He said, "It doesn't matter to me if you spend your life with a man or with a woman as long as you make it something you can hold your head up about."
My mother took some time because she thought it was her fault and she felt guilty about it. My grandma said to her, "You're missing out on a beautiful relationship because you can't accept this about him. He's still the same per...
Read the full transcript
Intro and Outro
INTRO:[STORYCORPS MUSIC]
Americans across the country are sharing their stories with each other at StoryCorps.
Today, we hear about conversations that were DIFFICULT for one family.
Robert Madden [Madd-EN] grew up in Mississippi in the 1960s.
He was close to his parents.
He says they could talk about anything.
Robert explains here to a friend ...how one subject kept taking his mom off guard.
[TAPE]
OUTRO:Robert Madden with Tom Kurthy at StoryCorps in Los Angeles.
His interview will be archived at the Library of Congress along with ALL
StoryCorps interviews.
Subscribe to the project's podcast at NPR-dot-ORG.
[STORYCORPS FUNDER]
Additional Credits
State Farm, NPR, Corporation for Public Broadcasting
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