My family knows. Since I do legal work I don't talk about the work I do and they don't ask. They just know that I am happy with my work and that I keep moving into bigger, nicer houses.

Coming out was a bit harder--the parents had a little [lot] of difficultly coming out of their own closet as parents of a gay son when I first came out to them, so I did the most rational thing and dragged them out by their britches -- I wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Des Moines Register lamenting how hard it was growing up gay in Iowa. I think I signed it "Chad Belville, former Worth County Attorney" or something like that. After that paper came out, everybody knew. My parents had been afraid that if everybody found out their son was gay the parents would get blamed. Nobody really cared!! And most already knew. So my coming out was not the drama anyone had expected, all those fears were unfounded.