When Eric Namaky told his parents he was gay, they kicked him out of the house. But they were about to go on a journey just as important as the one they had taken decades before, when they fled Iran after making an enemy of the Shah.

‘My parents made a journey [from Iran to the US] because they believed they deserved to live a life of freedom,’ Namaky said. ‘And so I take that with me in everything that I do.’

So you could say Namaky’s determination to be his true self was inspired by his parents’ struggles in Iran – and, after initially rejecting their son, his parents in turn were inspired by his courage and made their own journey to acceptance.

Coming out of Iran… and the closet

Namaky’s story is the latest to feature on LGBT story archive I’m From Driftwood. Describing himself as from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Namaky talks about how his parents, when living in their hometown of Tehran in 1979, ended up on a list of people the Shah ‘wanted captured and killed’. The pair made a daring journey from Tehran to Turkey and then Paris, before eventually settling in Cincinnati, where they brought up Namaky and his sister.

But their happy new family life was rocked when Namaky came out as gay in high school. ‘My dad was pissed,’ says Namaki. ‘He was like: “This is not the way you’re going to live your life. So you are going to change that or you can’t live here.”’ Namaky moved out.

Fast forward a few years, however, and things look very different. Namaky tells the story of how he asked his parents to meet his ex-boyfriend in his new home of New York City, and the foursome ‘grabbed burgers’ together. ‘I knew at that moment that my dad supported me 100%,’ says Namaky. ‘To close off is not in our blood.’

Watch Namaky tell the story in his own words below.