This True Story Of A Girl Adopted By Lesbian Parents Challenges All Kinds Of Prejudices

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/30/mia-gay-family_n_5406219.html
This True Story Of A Girl Adopted By Lesbian Parents Challenges All Kinds Of Prejudices
Posted: 05/30/2014

I am nineteen years of age, 5'4’', female, African-American, born in Los Angeles, moved around foster homes until the age of four. Just from that you probably are forming an idea of what kind of person I am and what kind of past I may have. Maybe I am not very educated, or maybe I am. Maybe I am of a lower class or maybe I am not. Have you yet thought what my name may be? I bet it wasn’t the first question to pop into your head, and that is expected. Well, let me fill you in. My name is Mia Springer and I was brought up by lesbians. They adopted me in L.A. and I have been calling them my mothers ever since.

I grew up mainly in white society. My friends were usually white, the schools I attended were usually majority-wise white. Being black, I was soon referred to as “the whitest black girl” any of my friends and classmates had met. As I got older I discovered another term for what I am -- “whitewashed” and that became my identity. I could do all of the things a “typical” black person was known to be capable of, but I was “even better” because I was “white” inside; they didn’t have to deal with the "ghetto" black people you see on the screen. “Uh-Oh Oreo.” Ever hear that expression before? Well, I am sure you can guess what it means. An inside-out Oreo, that was how I was seen. Except then you add in the fact that I was brought up in a lesbian household, and then became a whole new kind of person. Not only was I black, adopted by white women, but those women were lesbians! Can you just imagine the sort of reactions and questions I have gotten from people over the years?

Maybe now you are wondering if I myself am lesbian as well, or maybe bisexual, or maybe I am broken and damaged beyond repair. Actually, I attend college and I am also recently working a summer job. I am in a very strong healthy relationship with an amazing guy. I ride horses, I love to dance, read and write. Have I ever had thoughts that maybe I could be a lesbian? Sure. Did I ever think it had to do with my upbringing? No. Why? Because I am still me, an individual being. Whether I was raised by straight parents, lesbians or gay men, I believe I would still be straight myself. So let me just crush that stereotype right now because it is one I have run into many times over the years.

I couldn’t ask for better parents but then again who could when they have given me so much? And the craziest part? They chose me. Yep, picked me out of a group of small children with big, hopeful eyes and white gleaming smiles. They took me into their home and into their hearts, and loved and cherished me, and to this day spoil me beyond compare. Do you think we sit and compare our skin tones, or find barriers because I am black and they are white, or because I am straight and they are lesbian? No, of course not. We are family, pure and simple. Is family really defined by blood or is it more defined by love? For me, it is truly and utterly love, so why deny someone the right to family? With love I believe comes understanding, and in a family understanding is one of the posts that keeps your house from crashing down. Why should my parents have had to wait until 2014 to get married in the eyes of the law, simply because of the form of their love? People didn’t see the need to understand this type of love and bonding or maybe they weren’t ready to understand. I have been with my family for fifteen years and as far as I can see there is no crime done here, only your average people making more than average lives for themselves. Filling it to the brim with sunlight and the most precious gems life has to offer.... MORE at link posted above.