Basic Trope: Parents that are okay with their children being different or trying new things.
- Straight: Chris comes out to his parents, Alice and Bob, as gay. They accept him for who he is and are even interested in meeting his boyfriend, David.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice and Bob have many kids of a wide variety of identities and love all of them for who they are.
- All of the parents are open minded.
- Downplayed: Chris comes out to his parents as gay, and they are a little surprised/confused, but tell them that they're still accepting of him.
- Justified:
- Alice and Bob have found that it's not reasonable to be hateful towards others for anything harmless, especially given how much they love their son.
- Alice and Bob are "different" in their own ways, and have grown up being outcasts because of it. Finding love in each other, they vow to do right by their children, not wanting them to suffer the same trauma that Alice and Bob went through.
- Inverted:
- Chris is accepting of his parents being different.
- Alice and Bob are very strict and overbearing.
- Subverted: Chris's parents tell him he is okay with what he comes up about, so Chris comes up as gay. They tell him to get out of the house.
- Double Subverted: ... So he can bring his boyfriend over.
- Parodied: Chris comes out to his parents... as The Antichrist. Alice and Bob barely raise an eyebrow.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice and Bob are contemptuous of their son's relationship, but put up with this in order not to alienate their son.
- Averted:
- No mention of anyone's parents are made.
- Chris's parents aren't particularly accepting or open-minded.
- Enforced:
- "Let's add some Heart Warming Moments to this movie and have Chris's parents accept him for who they are."
- Alternatively, it can just serve as An Aesop on acceptance.
- It's a thank you to the author's own parents.
- Lampshaded: "Wow Chris, your parents took you coming out surprisingly well."
- Invoked: See Justified #2.
- Exploited: Chris and his friends decide to hang out with his parents more often, aware that they'll probably let them get away with more.
- Defied: Chris decides not to come out to his parents, out of fear of how they may react.
- Discussed: "You shouldn't worry about coming out to your parents Chris. After all, they seem pretty open minded."
- Conversed: "Here's hoping Alice and Bob accept him in a later episode, because if they don't, it's gonna suck for him."
- Deconstructed:
- Alice and Bob are ecstatic that Chris is gay, because that means they can brag about how much better than everyone they are for having a unique and diverse family. Maybe it will even make the investors in their store more interested.
- Just because Alice and Bob are accepting of Chris's sexual orientation doesn't mean everyone else is, and the more conservative parents in the town branded them as "neglectful parents", with one of them even calling CPS on the parents.
- Alice and Bob make a point of being supportive of Chris's relationship with David, to the point where they ignore red flags about David being a Bastard Boyfriend.
- Reconstructed: Alice and Bob see how upset and uncomfortable being used as prop makes Chris, so they apologize and promise to stop using him and acting so high and mighty.
- Implied: Chris coming out to his parents is not shown onscreen, but he mentions afterwards that his parents didn't mind the fact that he was gay.
- Played for Laughs: As Chris tells his parents he's gay, they claim that everyone already knew.
- Played for Drama:
- Bob's own father never believed in him, so he promises to himself that no matter how Chris chooses to live his life, he will support him.
- When Chris comes out, Bob overcompensates on support because he feels guilty for how he treated similar people in the past.
- Alice and Bob support Chris' life choices even when the church kick them out and their friends stop talking to them.
Your Open-Minded Parent will love you no matter who you are.
