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Gay lottery winner asks Internet how much he should give to homophobic parents

This may be a dream for a lot of people, but it's become a real headache for one lott0 winner. (Thinkstock)
This may be a dream for a lot of people, but it's become a real headache for one lott0 winner. (Thinkstock)

If you won the lottery today, say $15 million for instance, how much money would you give to your parents and family members? What if you didn’t get along with them or you felt they weren’t supportive of who you are? That’s one question a 29-year-old man is asking himself after recently winning the lottery.

The man goes by the name of Idontwanttogiveitup on social sharing site Reddit and he’s openly gay. He explained in a post that his homophobic parents discovered his orientation while he was still a student in high school and he says they didn’t talk to him for five full years because of it.

Screenshot of Idontwanttogiveitup's original post on Reddit, which has since been updated.
Screenshot of Idontwanttogiveitup's original post on Reddit, which has since been updated.

"So!" writes Idontwanttogiveitup on Reddit. "I'm a 29yr old guy and I won the lottery. And it's enough that I don't have to work ever again if I don't want too (over 15m)...My problem? My family, mainly my parents, feel they are entitled to 1/4 of the amount. I offered to pay off their mortgages and give them a little sum but that's not good enough once they found the total amount. My family and I have a cordial relationship but I moved an hour away to get away from my oppressive mother and distant father...What it comes down too it, I don't feel like they are entitled to anything and I'm being as generous as I can be (which I never said to them, but retrospectively I guess it's implied). The conversation got ugly and When my mom said, 'we raised you', I immediately thought about how both my parents didn't talk to me for 5yrs (ages 15-20), when they found out I was gay...How do I explain to them what my plans are again and how it doesn't involve them?"

So far the best idea as voted on by ReddIt users is to calculate all of the money the man’s parents spent raising him and put that amount into a retirement fund. A second user provided a breakdown of the math.

Screengrab of comments on Reddit debating how much money the poster's parents should get.
Screengrab of comments on Reddit debating how much money the poster's parents should get.

Of course the whole dilemma has just as much to do with the dynamics of personal relationships, feelings and emotions as it does to do with mathematics. Trying to figure out what to do involves answering some tough questions. Does raising someone until their teenage years justify trying to capitalizing on their luck or success if you have a problem with who they are? And if you’re the person with the money are you obligated to give out anything at all to relatives regardless of circumstance? Or is it okay to subscribe to singer Tina Turner’s famous chorus and just ask yourself: “What’s love got to do with it?”

Whether you yourself can provide firm answers to those questions or not, it’s obvious that the saying more money more problems holds true, whether you’re straight or gay, man or woman, close to your family or not close to your family. This story just goes to show that even when you hit the winning numbers, sometimes one reason to be upset can outweigh 15 million reasons to smile. On the bright side, at least this young man can wipe away his tears with lots of money. That’s what many people reading this who are never going to win the lottery will probably say. It’s a nice and unfortunate problem to have all at the same time.