Gay Man Live Tweets Being Approached By 40-Year-Old Dad Asking For Advice

Some pretty crazy things have gone down in Vegas. But when Twitter user Jack Remmington and his friend recently visited the city to play some slots, they weren't quite expecting the interaction they had with a 40-something dad. 

Remmington took to Twitter to share the wholesome exchange, where it quickly went viral attracting over 13,000 comments and hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets. 

“Ok I just experienced the nicest exchange with a stranger and think it’ll help to share: I was playing on the Mariah Carey slots in Vegas (naturally) and a friendly circa-mid-40s ish guy sat down to play on the machine next to me,” Remmington starts by writing. 

Remmington continues to explain how the man approached him and his friend:

"I was sitting with @marcoalessifilm, both wearing pink (naturally) and after chatting a little to the guy about Vegas, he nervously asked if he could ask us a question. I knew where this was gonna go as it always does so did a bit of an inner eye roll but indulged him anyway." 

That's when the man started asking questions.

"He then asked if we were together so we said no (we’re best friends and he has a fab bf) and he asked if we were gay, so we said yes. He then said he thinks his 13 year old son might be gay and wondered if he could ask us how best for him to navigate that."

Remmington explains that the man loved his son, and he just wanted advice on how to discuss the topic with him. 

"He lit up when talking about his son, and I nearly started crying at how much he clearly loved him. The guy wanted to know how to make his son feel most comfortable about himself whilst not being too overt and glaringly obvious in forcing a conversation about his sexuality."

He goes on to share the advice he gave the dad: 

"This man is SO sweet. From rural Arkansas and said whilst things are so much better now, he still just wants the world to be totally equal for his son. Marco and I said he sounds like he’s doing all the right things and that making his son know he’s loved is the best he can do."

"We both gave a couple of anecdotes from personal experience, largely relating to condoning abstract things when you see them like normalising conversations around gay kisses on TV or calling our family conversations that might shame potential queerness."

"We also mentioned not accidentally policing things so as to shame him - for instance, often out of a sense of protection and love parents can frown on a child’s behaviour or outfit because they’re worried for their safety when on a night out etc."

"But we stressed that if this was their feeling it’s important to vocalise this exactly, rather than leaving the child ruminating over the parent’s intentions and second guessing why they said what they said."

What an incredibly wholesome interaction. Remmington said in an interview with Bored Panda that he wasn't expecting the interaction at all when the man first began to ask if he and his friend were gay. 

“My first impression was that he seemed nice as he chatted which is more than what tends to happen with people you sit next to in Vegas at the slots. That said, I didn’t expect it to take this turn at all.”

“The relationship between him and his son has a 100% future – he was a wonderful and caring man, despite what he said was quite a difficult town to grow up in if you’re at all different. I wish all fathers could be like him.” 

Remmington also stated on Twitter that since the thread has gone viral, he has received over 50 messages from parents who said they used his advice to talk to their children. 

"Also on a purely selfish level the joy I’m getting reading all these messages is overwhelming," Remmington wrote. "Obviously can’t share them but just know that there are so many happy queer kids telling me beautiful stories in my DMs all because of this wonderful dad and the conversation he started."