...(wouldn't fit in the title!) or close friend or relative told you they were gay?

I lost touch with my college roommate and I found her through the Alumni Association. I wrote her a long letter (they wouldn't give me info, I had to write a letter and they forwarded it) and she immediately emailed me and said she had something to tell me. She was gay. She stressed that she hoped I never thought during college that she was hitting on me or attracted to me (at the time she was engaged to her high school schmuck - I mean sweetheart) and I told her I WAS highly offended, wasn't I pretty enough for her?!?! ;-)

She was most worried about telling her dad, and when she told him, his response was, "oh, thank god, I thought you were going to tell me you were a republican!".

How would you handle the news that someone you love dearly is gay?