A concerned father faced a heartbreaking decision when he had to choose between paying for his daughter Casey’s wedding and supporting his two other children who were discriminated against by their future in-laws.
Sharing his predicament on Reddit, the 56-year-old father explained that his daughter Casey was set to marry her fiancé Max, after dating for four years. He revealed that he has five children in total: sons Alex, 31, and Tom, 34, along with two other daughters. With Casey’s wedding approaching, he had taken on the responsibility of covering the expenses.
Discrimination and Exclusion
The father explained that Max’s family lived in another country and could not afford to both pay for the wedding and travel to attend. Wanting his daughter to be happy, he had no problem footing the bill for the ceremony.
However, he soon learned disturbing details surrounding the wedding when his sons Tom and Alex visited with their families. During a discussion about wedding invitations, he discovered that his sons had not received theirs. Initially, he thought Casey had not yet sent out all the invitations.
Shocking Revelations
It wasn’t until his oldest and youngest daughters informed him that they had received their invitations that he sensed something was wrong. Calling his sister, who also confirmed receiving her invitation, he realized something was amiss.
He suspected it had to do with his sons’ sexual orientation, as both Tom and Alex have husbands and adopted children. Despite Casey always being close to them and supporting them when they came out as non-binary and gay, respectively, it became clear that she had excluded them due to pressure from Max’s family.
Tough Love
Disturbed by the revelations, the father called Casey for an explanation. She admitted that Max and his family were uncomfortable with non-traditional couples and that it went against their culture. She hoped for his understanding. Outraged, he told her that if this was the case, he would no longer pay for the wedding or walk her down the aisle.
He insisted that his sons did nothing wrong and didn’t deserve to be excluded. He made it clear that if she prioritized her future in-laws’ opinions over her own family, they should pay for her wedding.
Family Reactions and Public Support
Casey’s reaction to her father’s ultimatum was one of insult and tears, as she hung up on him. While his other children supported him, his wife was torn. Although she agreed that excluding their sons was unacceptable, she struggled with guilt as a mother wanting to support all her children. The father expressed his bewilderment over Casey’s actions, especially since she had been the one to help her siblings come out to him. He felt that he had missed all the signs and that the entire family knew about the situation except him.
Many Reddit users expressed sympathy and support for the father, commending him for standing up for his other children. They warned that if Max’s family continued to dictate such terms, Tom and Alex would be excluded from future family events as well. One user summed it up, saying, “Casey can be bigoted on her own dime. I would never put my money into an event that discriminated against two of my kids like this.” Another asked, “What did your wife mean when she said she gets where Casey is coming from? Why is she torn when it comes to Casey, especially when she’s excluding the rest of your kids because her in-laws don’t approve of their sexuality?”
In such a difficult situation, many would likely agree that the father’s decision to support his sons was the right one. Casey’s exclusion of her brothers from her wedding, in favor of appeasing her future in-laws, was seen as a betrayal of family values and love.
