I know this letter has been making the rounds and there is some question about its authenticity, but just in case you haven’t heard about it here is the summary. A mom kicked her son out because he came out of the closet. He went to his Granddad’s place and his Granddad took him in with open arms. Then the Granddad wrote to his daughter about the situation.
Dear Christine:
I’m disappointed in you as a daughter. You’re correct that
we have a “shame in the family”, but mistaken about what it is.
Kicking Chad out of your home simply because he told you he
was gay is the real “abomination” here. A parent disowning her child is what
goes “against nature”.
The only intelligent thing I heard you saying in all this
was that “you didn’t raise your son to be gay”. Of course you didn’t. He was
born this way and didn’t choose it any more than he being left-handed. You
however, have made a choice of being hurtful, narrow-minded and backward. So,
while we are in the business of disowning our children, I think I’ll take this
moment to say goodbye to you. I now have a fabulous (as the gays put it)
grandson to raise, and I don’t have time for heart-less B-word of a daughter.
If you find your heart, give us a call.
- Dad
Because this letter is all over the internet, opinions,
comments and experiences are also posted.
A majority of posters side with the Granddad but there absolutely is a
very, very vocal minority.
So, to the Pray-Away-The-Gay folks, here are some stats:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates
that 20 % to 40 % of all homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or
transgender (LGBT). Given that between 3
percent and 5 percent of the U.S. population identifies as LGBT, it is safe to conclude
that they experience homelessness at a disproportionate rate.
Twenty-five to thirty-three
percent of homeless youth have engaged in survival sex. Nearly 50% of LGBT
homeless youth have attempted suicide. The number of safe havens for homeless
LGBT youth is nearly non-existent when compared to the staggering numbers of
LGBT youth on the street.
While stats aren’t the most effective argument tool, they
still are pretty telling. If you know that
homeless gay kids have a pretty good chance of becoming a prostitute and / or
dying by their own hands, would that change your mind? Would you let your kid stay in your home if
the choice was life or death? Or, despite all that, do you believe something
like “toughen-up-in-the in the real world and soon enough you’ll stop this homo
silliness” or maybe even the sacrifice of removing one kid will save the rest
of the family from biblical destruction.
This brings me to a parallel story about abandoning kids,
specifically males, in their early teens.
In the polygamist communities, the older men with influence
and power tend to do what dominant males in any group will do. They take the
best resources and toss out anything that will potentially become a threat. In this case, young girls become the desired commodity
and obviously not every male can have 20 wives or even one wife. So a portion of the young men are removed. Some
excuse is fabricated and ironically, accusations of being gay is one of the
justifications for removal. The message
being sacrifice your child for the good of the family and the good of the community.
These boys are even worse off than other teens kicked out
their houses. They have little education
and few applicable life skills. They don’t know how to apply for a job, access
public transportation or use a computer.
The Southern Utah cities call them the Lost Boys and estimate there are
about 400 of them in the area, looking for stability
My point? I think most people would agree that one of these
situations is absolutely destructive and morally wrong. However, a substantial
portion of the population would defend the mother’s treatment of her gay son. I guess religious intolerance is on a sliding
scale.
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