Geoffrey Britto, 25
Civil engineer
Cis male, Gay
He/him
“You’re going down the wrong path,” his father solemnly said as they sat down in the food court amidst the busy Christmas season at Chadstone.
A couple of months earlier, Geoffrey had come out to his sister as they drove back from a family wedding. Still at university then, Geoffrey had been keeping his relationship with an older man a secret from his family and friends but was starting to crumble with the charade of maintaining a dual life.
Suspicious of Geoffrey’s regular sleepovers “at a mate’s” and discrete phone conversations, Geoffrey’s father tried constantly to extract information from his sister.
“My sister had warned me that Dad had been asking her all these questions about me. So when Dad suggested going Christmas shopping for Mum out of the blue, I knew this was going to be the moment,” Geoffrey recalls of that day.
The confrontation at the Chadstone food court turned into an argument with Geoffrey’s father wanting him to speak to a priest, despite Geoffrey’s best attempts to help his father understand that being gay was perfectly normal.
“He was insistent that I could be helped and changed to be straight again. But I told him I had done my research and we could go see a priest or a counsellor, but it won’t change me. Being gay was non-negotiable but growing up in an Indian-Catholic family was challenging and I couldn’t find any resources that were designed to help ethnic religious parents despite all my Google searches.”
It’s been several years now since that encounter in Chadstone, which set in motion Geoffrey’s continued coming out. His parents continue to struggle with his sexuality while Geoffrey blossomed in confidence in his sexuality as a gay man.
Earlier this year, Geoffrey marched in his first Mardi Gras parade with Trikone Australasia, a South-Asian LGBT community group, despite his parents’ disapproval.
“They were concerned that I may be recognised on TV and couldn’t understand why I had to march publicly but it was so important to me because it was about being fearless,” Geoffrey explains
Geoffrey continues to remain fearless and has now volunteered to help kick off the Pride network at the engineering firm where he works.