- Do you know your height in centimeters?
- No.
- Me either.
But someone was like, "how tall are you?
155 cm?"
and I was like "no I'm not a baby!"
Then I realized that's like 5'4"
(laughing)
Hi everybody.
Welcome to In The Closet, I'm Jen,
that's Niki.
I'll be bringing people into this closet,
they leave really hot because the temperature
is pretty bad in this room.
My friend Nyla is on the show, and we're gonna talk about
something that is super cool and uh,
Nyla come into the closet!
- Hey guys.
- Coming through the closet side door.
- My name is Nyla.
I go by "she", "her"
- Cool.
She, her, got it.
Cool me too.
So on today's episode of In The Closet
we're gonna talk about what it's like to be raised
by a gay parent.
And Nyla, tell us a little bit about your family.
- My dad, Eric, is a gay man.
- Woo.
- Yes.
He came out to me when I was in the third grade.
- Nyla didn't wear this hat to work today
but she found it and is rocking it.
Just decided to
- Jen, I feel like we should get you a hat.
- Should I wear this?
- Yeah.
- Should I wear this hat?
Okay.
Niki do you want a hat?
I'm (mumbles)
Oh god.
- Thank you.
- [Voiceover] There we go.
Niki's gotta hat.
- Hat party.
- Alright so
- Back.
- We're back.
Your dad came out to you when you were in the third grade,
- Mmhmm.
- What was that conversation like?
- I went to a school that was super progressive.
We knew what being gay meant, we had gay pride day.
He was already in a relationship with someone.
I had asked him previously like, what's going on
between you two?
One night we were eating dinner and I said to my dad
I said "I really wanna know the real reason why
you two sleep together in the same bed."
and he was like "so we sleep together because we're
in a relationship."
- Yeah.
- And I was like "what does
what does that even mean?"
He said "I'm gay."
And so I started crying.
Not because I was hurt that he was gay,
- Yeah.
- Because he lied to me!
I'm like why'd you lie!?
You could've just told me what was going on
and how you were feeling and what you were going through.
I went to a school that had gay families,
that you could've met.
And so his whole thing was "I wasn't comfortable with it",
"I wanted to make sure it was the right time"
it's been heaven ever since.
- But like him not telling you had more to do with
his journey.
- Yeah definitely.
- Cause you were clearly like "Okay, you're gay."
- Yeah.
- Did you know what lesbians were?
(belch)
- Sorry.
- Its okay, babe.
- Did I, yeah I did.
When my dad came out to me we lived with a family who
- were lesbians?
- Yeah they were lesbians, yeah.
- You got like a big queer happy family.
- Yeah.
- Do you feel like you're a part of that queer community?
- Yes.
I'm still trying to find my place.
I think about it as a black woman, who's dealing with
black rights.
Having a white ally and thinking about it in a sense
of like when they can speak and when they can't speak
and its just time for them to listen,
that's how I think about myself in the LGBTQ community.
- Like sort of figuring out like where is the best time
to use your voice, or like, okay.
Um do we wanna play spin the bottle?
Okay.
Oh, perfect.
Spin the Bottle is, we ask a personal question
and we spin it and whoever it lands on
has to answer that question.
Alright what's the most embarrassing thing you guys
have done on a date?
- [Voiceover] Oh my god.
That's you, Jen.
- One time when I was 21 I was really drunk on a date.
I was like "alright gotta kiss her, gotta kiss her."
and I went for it and I just headbutted her in the face.
But then we made out anyway so it was fine.
What's the most embarrassing thing you've done?
- In the 8th grade,
so there was a parent teacher meeting or whatever
and so all the kids were downstairs and there was pizza
or whatever.
So let's play Truth or Dare.
So I won the dare and they were like
"okay you have to kiss this person"
but I was so nervous I was like oh my gosh,
and so I had just eaten pizza.
We started kissing and I could feel his tongue
enter my mouth.
- Whoa.
- And all the pizza that I ate just came up.
It just was like "nope, not today Satan."
(laughter)
it was embarrassing.
- Should we, should we come out of the closet now?
Is it time?
- Yeah I like the closet but it's time to come out.
Its hot.
- Alright, the closet side door.
But you can come back and we'll chill in the closet, again.
- Oh okay.
Which way is the side door?
- This way.
- The one you came in.
- [Voiceover] Oh right.
- Yeah.
- [Voiceover] Right.
- Bye!
- We out!