This was Karamo Brown’s surprising reaction to his son coming out as pansexual
Karamo Brown and Jason Brown attend the premiere of Netflix’s Queer Eye (Emma McIntyre/Getty)
Queer Eye star Karamo Brown has spoken about his surprising reaction to his son coming out as pansexual.
The TV star, 38, is father to 22-year-old Jason, who was born by a previous relationship, and also adopted his son’s half-brother Christian, 19.
In a joint interview with The Advocate, the Queer Eye star spoke about the surprising strain their relationship was put under when Jason also came out.
Karamo Brown took his son coming out surprisingly hard.
Karamo said: “When Jason let me into his life regarding him identifying as pansexual, there was a myriad of feelings that I had. First, he didn’t let me into his life regarding being pansexual until he was 21.
“This is a young man who grew up in a household where his father is a career gay… I’ve literally been on television, open and proud about my sexuality, worked in social services with LGBT youth, he was around LGBT youth and adults, he’s seen the healthy relationship that I’ve been in for ten years — yet there was still a fear in his mind of sharing with me.
“When he shared with me that he identified as pan, I was, first of all, disappointed… I was a little hurt.”
The TV star added: “When I got custody of Jason, people said, ‘Don’t have your son be raised with a gay man, because it’s going to turn him gay,’ and obviously, I know that’s ignorant, I know that’s not true… but when he let me into his life [about his pansexuality], I immediately thought, ‘Oh, here we go. Now I’m going to have to defend this.'”
Karamo added that he “didn’t have education on what pan truly meant” and “had to go on this journey quickly, really quickly, to educate myself”.
Jason said: “We have such a good connection of communication and I never hide anything from my dad, so when he heard this — and he was not the first person to hear this — I could sense that it kind of hurt him, and that’s why it transferred to a little bit of frustration.
“I should have just been real with my father.”
Queer Eye star only found out he had a son 10 years after his birth.
Karamo has previously opened up about his unlikely journey to parenthood.
“I came out at 16-years-old as a proud, gay man,” he told Parents.com.
Karamo Brown and son Jason Brown, who was born by a previous relationship (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty)
“My last girlfriend in high school – when I was 15 – became pregnant with my child but did not tell me.
“She moved away, and I never had contact with her again; remember this is before social media.”
A whole decade passed before he received a subpoena for child support, seemingly out of the blue.
“I was confused, sad, angry, and weirdly excited to be a dad, but felt lost nonetheless,” he recalled.
The TV star took custody of his son straight away, saying: “It wasn’t always easy, but when it comes to your children, giving up is never an option.”
He added: “I give my son’s mother so much praise for allowing me to step in and support her in raising our kids.”
