Long answer to a situation about two gay brothers growing up in a conservative Christian ‘bubble’.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/01/08/sl-letter-of-the-day-bubble-boys
Who wants to sit around being awkwardly civil with people who don’t accept you because they love their unseen god more than their children? My parents view this as noble — like Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac. As Julia Sweeney once said, “Isn’t the correct answer to that question NO? I will not sacrifice my child to you, or to any other god.” Be the honest man you were raised to be. Spread your own Good News to your family, and feel your feelings about it, not theirs. It always feels great to have nothing to hide, and you may be the only person challenging their belief system with a little bit of reason.
And a heartfelt response from the mother of Lance Bass, Diane Bass:
If you believe that being gay is a choice, then the rest of what I say will not matter. I do not know why, but even as a staunch Christian, I personally never believed that being gay was a choice. I never knew a lot of gay people, but the ones I did meet I felt compassion for because I could feel their pain of being rejected and my heart always went out to them. Even though I never did believe Lance chose to be gay, I did not accept it as quickly as my husband did. His attitude was “It is what it is.” My attitude was “Yes, it is what it is but my God can perform miracles so I’m going to beg for a miracle to zap Lance and change him to straight!” And I did just that. I continued to love my son, stand beside him, and defend him, but for several years I continued to pray relentlessly for a miracle.
Well, Lance is still gay. However, I did get a miracle. It is just not the miracle I prayed for. You are looking at the miracle tonight. The miracle is that I learned to have unconditional love and compassion for my son and others in the gay community.
