#not silly

Here is my pre-canon designs for this chapter!

Link:

*is serious as fuck*

So before we start, this advice will come from lived experience, and works best on conservative religious parental figures. But not all people are the same, and different things work on different people.

If your parents notice you have done something radical to your appearance (cut hair, grew it longer, anything not stereotypically your perceived gender, etc.) reassure them it is just "teenage rebellion". Cite some rebellious thing your parents did as teenagers, and reassure them that you'll "laugh about it" in a few years.

If your family goes to a Christian church, try to go along quietly. Those services usually don't last more than three hours and you'll keep up your appearance as "a good kid" if that is your reputation or you'll gain some favour from your parents or something along those lines. I know those services are not fun, as someone who went to them for my whole childhood, but trust me, it will keep suspiciousness off your back extremely well

I highly recommend that you do all your queer-related googles in incognito mode. And if you do art, draw something wholesome, like cats, and use that to cover any overtly queer art/physical media. And I also recommend hiding Tumblr.

If there is is extremely high suspicion of queerness, then you must use the diversion tactics. For suspected non-straight sexual orientation, have a casual conversation about your parent's marriage and how you desire a similar one or talk about the cute boy/girl down the street, but make it sound natural. That last part is important. For suspected genderqueer ness, do one stereotypical thing for your perceived gender. For example: my parents were quite surprised that I cut my hair short. (It was shoulder length actually, not even that short) So I painted my nails.

Assess risk of being kicked out. If you ever overhear your parents talking about kicking their child out of the house for coming out, then that's not good and perhaps more stealth measures should be implemented. Evaluate general attitude towards queer people. Most likely it's not going to be good, but some are like "I don't care what they do but they shouldn't do it in front other kids.", some are like "I just don't want to do their 'life style' but others are more "God made man and woman in his image. Homosexuality is a perversion against God." The latter is more likely to take extreme action against you if you are found out. (Source: have you seen those anti-pride protests?)

I hope my advice has been helpful. As always, hopefully you have someone else who is supportive, and when you move out, you'll be able to live life on your terms.