love in the family

Gay adult video star shares his family’s surprising reaction to his secret career

Adult performer Drew Valentino recently shared a heartwarming story about his family’s surprising show of support.

“Earlier this year I decided to come out to my family ….again. Although this time about being in the adult movie industry,” he wrote on Instagram. “HUGE relief to find that my entire family supportive and even excited for me. I flew home for Father Day’s and my dad was wearing this shirt.”

The photo showed his father wearing a t-shirt declaring himself as the “proud parent” of an adult video star.

In an interview with the gay adult site The Sword, Valentino said his desire to work in the industry was “an interesting choice because I have a huge family that’s all very close.” Also, he never expected his career to achieve such success so quickly.

“So as my career accelerated, I started to feel more and more guilty when I thought about my family,” he told the site. “I started to realize that I felt this way, not because what I am doing is wrong or unhealthy, but because I was keeping it a secret. Lying was the only part that was wrong or unhealthy.”

He said he felt “terrified” before coming out as gay at age 24 to his dad. His dad had always been a “fit baseball jock”, Valentino wrote on his Twitter. But his father didn’t let toxic masculinity get in the way of their relationship.

His dad responded to his son’s coming out by saying, “I don’t care about who you love. You are my son and that will always come first.”

A few days before telling his father about his secret career, Valentino told his dad “how much I appreciate him as a father and how much his words on that day impacted the rest of my life.” Then, he eventually told his dad about his adult video work and then quickly left his home soon after.

That was in March. When he went home in June for Father’s Day, his father was wearing the “proud parent” shirt.

It’s cool that his father and family reacted so well. There’s nothing shameful about making a living by doing (ahem) hard work, and a family’s support does a lot to increase the happiness and well-being of queer children, no matter their age or profession.

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