HAPPY TEARS

The Advice This 1950s Dairy Farmer Gave To His Gay Son Will Make You Cry

Screen shot 2015-10-12 at 10.55.23 AMPatrick Haggerty grew up in rural Dry Creek, Washington during the 1950s. His father, Charles Edward Haggerty, was a dairy farmer. When he was a teenager, Patrick starting becoming aware of his sexuality, but he kept it hidden as best he could.

Related: 18 Coming Out Success Stories To Celebrate National Coming Out Day

One day, Patrick’s father, sensing his son was gay, sat him down and gave him a piece of advice he still carries with him to this day: “Don’t sneak. Because if you sneak … it means you think you’re doing the wrong thing.”

Related: This Dad’s Response To His Twin Sons Coming Out Is 100 Percent Perfect

“Of all the things a father in 1959 could have told his gay son,” Patrick recalls, “my father tells me to be proud of myself and not sneak. … I had the patron saint of dads for sissies. No, I didn’t know it at the time, but I know now.”

Watch the touching video below.

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