Marjorie Silva Won't Bake A 'God Hates Fags' Cake

We’ve heard all the stories of florists who don’t want to sell flowers for two grooms getting married, and bakeries that won’t make cakes for same-sex-couples, but this is a new twist.

Marjorie Silva, owner of the Azucar Bakery in Denver will bake a cake for any occasion, for anyone, gay or straight or whatever. Until recently.

See, an older man came into her store one day and said he wanted a cake shaped to look like the Bible, and Silva said that was not a problem; she says she makes Christian-themed cakes "all the time” but this one was so different.

The man, when telling Silva what he wanted, took out a piece of paper with the words he wanted written on the cake, but he would not hand it over. One of the employees said he wanted them to write “God Hates fags” on the cake.

“He wouldn’t allow me to make a copy of the message, but it was really hateful. I remember the words detestable, disgrace, homosexuality, and sinners.”—Marjorie Silva

Still, Marjorie, to her credit, said she’d bake it, with a caveat ... she would not write those words on the cake but would “sell him a [decorating] bag with the right tip and the right icing so he could write those things himself.” She says she would have been devastated to release a cake with such a hateful message fashioned by her own hands.

And that’s when the man stood up, told her that she needed to talk to her attorney, and left.

Hmmm, I smell a set-up. And lo and behold, a few hours later, the man came back and asked if she’d conferred with her lawyer; she told him she was busy and didn’t have time, but once more offered to bake the Bible cake and sell him the tools to complete the task himself but that is clearly not what he wanted. She says, though no one raised their voice, the man was creating a scene and she asked him to leave, which he did.

Then he came back again — the third time in one day — and this time Marjorie asked her brother to excuse him, but before he left, he told Marjorie, and her staff, “You will hear from me!”

And she did, via a letter filed with Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies [DORA] that explained that a discrimination complaint had been filed against the bakery and that she would need to respond with her account of what happened that afternoon:

“I can … tell you that the customer wanted us to draw two males holding hands … with a big ‘X’ on them. I told him that we do not like to discriminate in this bakery, we accept all humans and that the message and drawing is extremely rude.”

Marjorie admits to being confused as to why the man chose her bakery, but said it might have had something to do with a pro-marriage-equality statement she gave to a Spanish-speaking news outlet after the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision; that’s the case where the Colorado Civil Rights Commission upheld a judge’s ruling that a Lakewood bakery was guilty of discrimination when the owners refused to bake cakes for gay weddings.

Marjorie suspects the man might have been organizing the backlash and using her shop to stage his protest, but she adds, in her response to DORA:

“I would like to make it clear that we never refused service. We only refused to write and draw what we felt was discriminatory against gays. In the same manner we would not … make a discriminatory cake against Christians, we will not make one that discriminates against gays.”

DORA will make a decision 30 days from receipt of Marjorie’s final statement, but let me make this perfectly queer: asking someone to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple is nothing like asking someone to bake a Bible cake with “God Hates Fags” on it.

One cake celebrates love, the other celebrates hate.

And possibly tastes terrible, too.

via NCRM and OutFront

Today in Christian Love: There Is No Funeral Because The Deceased Is Gay

Vanessa Collier was just thirty-three years old when she died last month, leaving behind a wife and children, and a family who just wanted a simple funeral for her. So they contacted the New Hope Ministries in Denver, and arranged to have a service; they even gave the church a memorial video to be played during the ceremony.

But the church lost the video, and asked for a second copy, and then asked the family to edit the video, removing a clip showing Vanessa Collier kissing her wife, Christina Higley, because, you know, love and lesbians and God.

Pastor — and why these not very Christ-like people call themselves pastors is fodder for another blog post — Gary Rolando, told the family:

"We don't want overt, open homosexuality in our sanctuary."

Then he added that he knew the family, loved the family, knew the deceased — her name is Vanessa, by the way, “Pastor” — and that she led an, ahem, 'alternative' lifestyle. I guess by ‘alternative’ he meant that she treated everyone the same regardless of their sexual orientation.

When the family learned that the church wanted the kiss edited from the video, they naturally refused, so on the day of the funeral, moments before it was to begin, New Hope Ministries canceled it, citing ‘technical difficulties.’

Now, to his credit, and mind you, it’s very little credit, Pastor Rolando did conduct the funeral service at another church — since they don’t bury gays at New Hope — though there was no explanation about those alleged difficulties; “Pastor” Ray Chavez [left], the founder of New Hope Ministries, refused to explain why the service was canceled so suddenly, but Rolando blamed a visiting funeral director, saying "the funeral director on that day came from a different funeral home in the chain, and wasn't familiar with New Hope's policies."

Hmmmmm, church policies? What might those be? Love one another? That policy? Judge not lest ye be judged? That one? Or maybe it’s the policy that if two women share a kiss on a memorial video then you can refuse to bury one of them? That policy?

Rolando has since said:

"I'm sorry this happened the way it did. New Hope is very sorry... It's very sad that it happened the way that it did."

Well, “Pastor,” it wouldn’t have happened that way if the leaders of the church, the “pastors” of the church weren’t bigots and homophobes, eh? It wouldn’t have happened that way if the “pastors” of the church simply believed that God is love and that God loves everyone, and it’s only the “pastors” at New Hope that hate.

God is watching New Hope and She is not happy.

via NCRM

Today In Christian Love: You Can Be Fired For Supporting Equality

As usual, there’s Good News and Bad News.

The Good News is that marriage equality has come to Florida … finally … while the Bad News is that the Catholic Church is so incensed over the idea of equality that the Archdiocese of Miami has threatened to fire anyone who works for the Church if they voice support for equality.

So, let me get this queer: the Catholic Church is anti-0marriage equality and anti-Freedom of Speech? How Christ-like, no?

Archbishop Thomas Wenski has sent out a letter warning employees that they could be fired for any conduct that is “inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church"  and that "because of the Church’s particular function in society, certain conduct, inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church, could lead to disciplinary action, including termination, even if it occurs outside the normal working day and outside the strict confines of work performed by the employee for the Archdiocese.”

See, if you work for the Church and then go home and, say, get on the Facebook and support marriage equality, you’ll be fired; if you, say, Tweet to your cousin who just married his longtime partner because equality came to town, you can be fired. If you have a blog and show support for the rights of all Americans to be treated equally under the law, you’ll lose your job.

For having an opinion, and voicing an opinion, you can be fired.

And they like to say there’s a war on religion? It looks like religion is firing the first shots at anyone who supports marriage equality and voices their support.

Again, how f**king-Christ-like.

via NBC Miami

CBS Films Straight-Washes 'Pride'

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Photo of the Week

During the holidays, a Gay Couple came home to find a rather nasty slur scratched into their door, beneath their shimmering, glittering wreath, but instead of fighting hate with hate, they decided it might be best to teach the little bastards vandals a lesson into how to make their hate scrawls a little prettier.

I love it!

PFOX: Liars and Asshats

Gay? Are we born that way, or do we choose it?

Well, PFOX [Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays] an anti-gay organization that wants y’all to believe that The Gays chose The Gay is trying real hard again to make their point. This time they’ve erected a billboard along I-95 in Virginia to share their, um, Christmas message:

"Identical twins: One gay, one not. Nobody is born gay."

So says one Regina Griggs, Executive Director of PFOX, who adds:

"Identical twins have the same genes or DNA. If homosexuality is caused by genetics or prenatal conditions and one twin is gay, the co-twin should also be gay…Because identical twins are always genetically identical, homosexuality cannot be genetically dictated. No one is born gay."

Hmmm, that makes sense, you know, until you actually read up on the science of genetics and identical twins, as was done by Scientific American in 2008, where they learned that identical twins are rarely completely the same, such as not having the same fingerprints or even the same IQ levels. Now, if there is some genetic marker that makes one twin gay, maybe that other twin, no matter how identical, wasn’t lucky enough to get it.

And the good folks at PFOX have some IQ issues all their own, or at least some ethical issues, because, you see, the twins in the picture are not twins. It’s two pictures of the same young man, Kyle Roux, a South African model who is not a twin, but is most definitely gay, and wants PFOX to know that:.

"It just seems like there no place in today's world for an organization that is promoting this as being some kind of deviant or distasteful lifestyle, because I've lived my life openly gay and happy for my entire life. It's actually quite a big thing that there is this kind of discrimination and borderline hate speech going on, you know.” — Kyle Roux

Let me make this queer to all those anti-gay hate groups: if you believe in your rubbish, all well and good, if that’s how you choose to live your life. But don’t make up lies and put ‘em on a sign for all the world to see. It makes you look stupid and hateful and just plain pathetic.

Why would you choose that?

via NCRM

Today In Christian Love: Beaten For Being Gay

Matthew Fenner joined the Word of Faith Fellowship church in Spindale, North Carolina when he was just sixteen; by age twenty-one, he’d left the church, after claiming he was beaten, strangled, held captive by five church members, mentally, physically, and verbally abused because he’s gay.

For him, January 27, 2013, started off as just another prayer service, until parishioners began gathering around him.  They began to berate him because he was gay; one woman told him he was “disgusting.” This went on for two hours, with Fenner being pushed and beaten, and screamed at in a church ritual that some members believe was necessary to get Fenner to "break free of the homosexual 'demons.'"

Last week, five Word of Faith Fellowship church members — “Good Christians” Justin Brock Covington, Brooke McFadden Covington, Robert Louis Walker Jr., Adam Christopher Bartley and Sarah Covington Anderson — were indicted by the grand jury on charges of second degree kidnapping, simple assault and assault by strangulation; Sarah Covington Anderson was indicted on second degree kidnapping as well as simple assault and assault by strangulation.

In his affidavit to police, Fenner claims that, on at least three occasions, he was ganged up on and attacked, beaten, strangled, and demoralized for being gay. And he says that during that January 2013 assault, a group of church members, led by Sarah Covington Anderson, surrounded him, peppered him with questions about his sexual orientation, pushed him and screamed at him. It was then, he says that Sarah Covington Anderson grabbed him by the throat, punched him, and beat him. He says at least fifteen to twenty other “Christians” surrounded him while the beating took place.

“By this point, Sarah began to tell me how much she couldn’t stand to be around me and that I was disgusting because of my sexual orientation. I told her that I was sorry that I didn’t know what she wanted me to tell her and to which she then slapped me with a great amount of force across my left cheek. At this point I was really starting to get scared.” — Matthew Fenner

Matthew says he joined the church, with his mother and brother, at a time when he was questioning his sexual orientation; he says he decided to attend the church and its school because of his mother.

"My mom and I were always really close and I just thought maybe I can keep an open mind and see if it works — see if I can change. Obviously, that was really a stupid decision because you can't change who you are. But in my mind it seemed like the right thing to do." — Matthew Fenner

As a church member, he became a tutor, helping other students and going to services, but soon some of those “Christians” began to suspect Matthew was gay. It was then, after that January church service that he was attacked.

After he was released, and covered in bruises, Matthew raced home to his mother’s house; she refused to believe him, even though he’d clearly been beaten, and, in fact, both his mother and brother testified against him during the grand jury hearings.

Joshua Farmer, whose law firm is representing those five “Christians” calls the allegations “nonsense”:

“They are innocent of the charges leveled against them and we look forward to proving their innocence and to their complete vindication before a trial court. We are adamant that no one ever physically harmed Mr. Fenner… The church does NOT target members who are gay.”

But there are rumblings that this kind of behavior by church members — the shouting, screaming, physical abuse — is par for the course for Word of Faith Fellowship. The church, founded in 1979 by Sam and Jane Whaley, has, for years, been accused of enforcing extensive control over its congregation.

Former members say they were told by church leaders where to live and work, what to read, how to dress and when to have sex with their spouses. They say that Word of Faith practices "blasting," a form of hands-on, high-pitched, screaming prayer to drive demons from the bodies of parishioners like Matthew Fenner. In 2012, the church’s website stated, “Those who were once drug addicts, alcoholics, homosexuals, etc. are now delivered by the power of God and are living normal lives, serving God and doing his will.” Interestingly enough, since the allegations by Matthew Fenner, the statement has been edited to remove the word “homosexuals.”

Still, many LGBT groups have condemned Word of Faith after several young men — whose parents are church members — claimed they were abused because they are gay. In 2012, Michael Lowry made similar claims against the “church” which resulted in a Department of Justice investigation into the matter as a hate crime. Lowry later recanted his story and returned to the church, but today, he is once again out of the “church” and claiming he was manipulated by church members into recanting his story.

I’m always amazed by those in the far, far religious right, who rant and rave that the LGBT community is trying to strip them of their freedom of religion, and yet say absolutely nothing about the mental and physical abuse churches inflict on homosexual members. 

I’ve yet to see or hear of one instance where a gay group has kidnapped, beaten, verbally abused a member of any church to get them to renounce the demon of faith or come to “homosexuality”, but this kind of anti-gay behavior goes unpunished by so called “Good Christians” like, from left to right, below, Sarah Covington Anderson, Robert Louis Walker Jr., Justin Covington, Adam Bartley and Brooke Covington.

How Christ-like is that?

source

Michigan GOP Seeks To Legalize Discrimination Because ... God

Out there in Michigan, the GOP controlled House of Representatives, led by Speaker Jase Bolger, has passed a bill that would allow discrimination to become sanctioned by the state if you can say you discriminated because God told you it was okay … cuz God is all about discrimination, you know.

This bill, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act [RFRA] is much like one that made nationwide headlines in Arizona before it was vetoed; it appears to allow the government to step aside if a person's "deeply-held religious beliefs" mandate they act, or not act, in a certain manner. Supporters of RFRA claim the bill allows people of faith to exercise their religion without government interference, but the fact is that what these bills do is to allow discrimination under the mask of religion; and, again, we all know that God—whether you believe in Her or not—is all about the discrimination.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at what could happen …

Under the RFRA a pharmacist could refuse to fill a doctor's prescription for birth control, or HIV medication; an emergency room physician or EMT could refuse service to a gay person in need of immediate treatment; a school teacher could refuse to mentor the children of a same-sex couple; a science teacher could teach that the Earth is just 6,000 years old; a DMV clerk could refuse to give a driver's license to a person who is divorced. 

And what if a Catholic-owned hospital refused admittance to people who need a procedure that violates the institution’s religious directives, such as a pre-viability pregnancy termination in the case of a miscarriage; what if that Catholic-owned hospital refused a same-sex couple.

And, what about those religions that allow for a man to beat his wife? Would he be allowed to do so because of his deeply held religious beliefs? It’s not that far-fetched when you allow religious discrimination of any kind.

But Jase Bolger — and the Michigan GOP — doesn’t care about that because the people who are being discriminated against are not part of the goose-stepping GOP base, and so he fast-tracked the bill, which passed solely along partisan lines, and now heads to the Michigan Senate. If successful there, it’s a hop skip and a hate crime to Republican Governor Rick Snyder, though, to be fair, it’s not yet known if he would sign it. 

“I support individual liberty and I support religious freedom,” Bolger said today. “I have been horrified as some have claimed that a person’s faith should only be practiced while hiding in their home or in their church.” — Jase Bolger

I, too, am horrified that he would say that without offering one single case of a person being denied their religious freedom in this country. Oh, if he means the baker who doesn’t wanna bake a cake for a gay couple, then he needs to make sure the baker is a church, and not a publicly run business; or, if he means the clerk who won’t issue a marriage license, then he needs to make sure the clerk is working for a religious organization, and not the state, or federal, government.

And this whole notion of “restoring” religious freedom annoys me because, again, I have not seen religious freedom stripped away from anyone. Take a drive down any street in South Carolina and you’ll find more churches than gas stations; take a peek at our local channels and you’ll find a church, and its pastor, advertising their faith every morning.

We have always had religious freedom, but what we don’t have is religion trumping the laws of this country; what we don’t have is people using God to inflict their own personal beliefs on anyone else.

But, if that’s how you wanna roll, Michigan, please make an addendum to your bill: please force those business, and hospitals, and pharmacies, and schools, that want to discriminate against people while citing their religious beliefs post a sign at their doors so that people who don’t think God hates anyone, or would discriminate against anyone, or people who don’t believe there even is a God, can go somewhere else.

Make people who want to discriminate against anyone else be forced to advertise their discrimination.

If haters are gonna hate, make them tell people about it.

via NCRM

The GOP: Insane. Lazy. Lying. Anti-LGBT.

Okay, so we know the GOP hates … hates … President Obama. I mean, back in 2009, when the man had barely been in office a hot minute, the Grand Old Turtle of the GOP, Mitch McConnell, popped his head outta his shell and said the Republican’s sole job over the next four years would be to make sure Obama was a one-term President; and we all know how that worked out.

And then this past election cycle they campaigned on anti-Obama sentiment and not on what they had been doing for the country the last four years … uh, because that’s a big fat nothing. They have done nothing and yet because they were able to make it all seem to be Obama’s fault, they took control of Congress; for doing nothing.

Still, they hate him; they hate him so much they’ve lost their mother-effing minds, and are now trying to systematically dismantle the office of the President, or at least the President’s powers. That is, until a rich old white guy gets back into office and then everything will be turned back around.

Until then, listen to this: last week, the GOP goose-stepping asshatted Congressman from Georgia, Paul Broun called on Weeper, er, Speaker of the House John Boehner to not invite Obama to deliver the State of the Union address next year.

Uh, yeah.

But, not to be outdone by his feeble-minded party cohort, Tim Huelskamp, the goose-stepping asshatted Congressman from Kansas, suggested that the budgets for White House operations, including the President’s use of Air Force One, be decreased. Of course, Huelskamp is also a fan of not inviting Obama to give his State of the Union address because, well, George Washington never gave one in person; he had it delivered to Congress.

I know.

Then, not to be outshone in the asshat department, Texas’ newly-elected GOP goose-stepping asshatted governor, Greg Abbott, announced this week that he plans to sue Obama on behalf of his state. That’s job one on Abbott’s first day in office; not jobs, not the budget, not environment ... but suing the president because, well, you know.

Insane, I know, but there’s more; let’s talk about the bigoted, and homophobic and anti-LGBT GOP.

The House Rules Committee of the 113th Congress — nine Republicans and four Democrats — is the group that decides which bills make it to the House floor for a vote, and last week, by a 7-3 vote, the committee killed ENDA.

And those seven committee members, elected by us — well, by some of us — to work for us, and to do the things we want them to do, killed ENDA even though 73% of Americans support the idea that firing someone just because they’re an L, G,B, or T is not right.

Three-quarters of We the People wanted this law passed and seven Republicans said No. And those seven bigots are down there, left to right, top to bottom, meet Reps. Michael Burgess, Pete Sessions, Tom Cole, Virginia Foxx, Richard Nugent, Daniel Webster, and Rob Woodall.

That’s you GOP folks; and that’s your Congress for the next two years. They have put forward no plans for anything other than trying to hurt the president, other than trying to hurt the LGBT community, other than stomping their feet and suggesting another government shutdown over Obama’s immigration plan.

Yes, another $24,000,000,000 shutdown that We the People will pay for because the GOP, and its Teabagger minions, don’t like a Black man in a White House.

How’s that for hate?

Republicans Suggest Obama Be Denied Use of Air Force One

Seven Republicans Kill LGBT Bill Supported By 70% of Americans

Today In Christian Love: 'To End AIDS, Kill The Homos'

A man called Steven Anderson founded the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona as its "Pastor"; he holds no college degree — according to his own website — but he has actually memorized over 140 chapters of the Bible memorized “word-for-word, including approximately half of the New Testament" so you just know he’s a man of God … because he can read and retain Bible passages.

Hell, if that’s all it takes, I might just start me a church … but I digress.

Naturally, as a man who memorizes the Bible, he is quite familiar with Leviticus and because of that, in a recent sermon to his, I don’t want to call it a congregation, I think of it more as a cult, that he has discovered a cure for AIDS and it goes like this:

“Look, we can have an AIDS-free world by Christmas. Here's what the bible says, Leviticus 20:13. 'If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman,' it says, even both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.

“And that, my friend, is the cure for AIDS. It was right there in the Bible all along — and they’re out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It’s curable — right there. Because if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant.”

And as he said this, his cult laughed; at killing people, they laughed.

Of course, Steven Anderson failed to mention that AIDS doesn’t just affect the gay community, it also affects the straight community, black people, white people, rich, poor, but in his narrow mindset it’s a gay thing so, you know, Kill The Gays; Problem Solved.

But it creates a whole new problem: how is that Christian love? How will Steven Anderson kill The Gays without, you know, breaking that nagging commandment about Thou Shall Not Kill? How do you get around that?

Let me make this perfectly queer: this is not Christian teaching, this is Hate Speech. This is suggesting to any number of loons who might be following Steven Anderson in his descent into madness, that they have a right, ordained by God, to go out and kill a gay person because it will stop the spread of AIDS. And so, when that happens, I want Steven Anderson arrested as a co-conspirator.

I said in a post yesterday — see it HERE — that all of these so-called men, and women, of God, who use religion, faith, Jesus Christ, and God, to suggest that The Gays are less than, that we are second class citizens, an abomination, unworthy of life, should be found guilty in every single case of gay bashing in this country because of their Hate Speech masked as Faith.

Add Steven Anderson to that list, and give him a special place of honor, because he isn’t hiding very well; he simply, and plainly, says, Kill The Gays.

How f**king Christ-like.

via NCRM

After Their Son's Death, Rob and Linda Robertson Hope To Change Church Views On Homosexuality

Rob and Linda Robertson thought of themselves as Good Christians, and found themselves tested when, at age 12, their son Ryan told them he was gay. Oh, they told him they loved him, but they also told him that he had to change, and entered him into reparative therapy, made him meet regularly with their pastor, put him in Bible study and church youth groups because they believed, as they’d been taught through their church, that homosexuality is a sin and that its wrong.

But nothing changed; six years and nothing changed. Except that Ryan, at age eighteen was still gay, and more miserable than ever. He cut off from his parents and his faith, and started taking drugs, and in 2009, he died of an overdose.

Now, too late for their own child, Rob and Linda Robertson have come to the conclusions that they were “wrongly taught.” Rob Robertson says the church, through its programs of reparative therapies, and its emphasis on homosexuality being wrong and curable, have made a “horrible, horrible mistake.”

But they chose to stay with their faith, though they switched to a non-denominational church, and began working to inspire other Christians with gay children to do the same. The Robertson’s no longer want the church to try and change gay children, they want the churches to change and become more understanding, more tolerant, and more, for lack of a better word, Christ-like.

“Parents don’t have anyone on their journey to reconcile their faith and their love for their child. They either reject their child and hold onto their faith, or they reject their faith and hold onto their child. Rob and I think you can do both: be fully affirming of your faith and fully hold onto your child.” — Linda Robertson

And they know they have a tough road ahead of them; Evangelicals tend to dismiss fellow believers who accept same-sex relationships as no longer being “real” Christians, but the Robertson’s, and other parents of gay children, have begun seeking one another out online and through faith-oriented organizations for the LGBT community, like the Gay Christian Network, The Reformation Project and The Marin Foundation.

Linda Robertson, who blogs about Ryan at JustBecauseHeBreathes, also created a private Facebook page she started for evangelical mothers of gays that has more than 300 members. And others are also following …

• James Brownson — whose own son came out as gay — is a New Testament scholar at Western Theological Seminary and recently published the book “Bible, Gender, Sexuality,” advocating a re-examination of what Scripture says about same-sex relationships.
• Chester Wenger, a retired Mennonite pastor, lost his clergy credentials after officiating at his son’s marriage to another man. Wenger, in a statement urging the church to accept gays and lesbians, told of the pain his family experienced when a church leader excommunicated his son three decades ago without any discussion with Wenger and his wife.
• The Reverend Danny Cortez, pastor of New Heart Community Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in California, was already moving toward recognizing same-sex relationships when his son came out.  And, when Cortez announced his changed outlook to his congregation, they voted to keep him; sadly the national denomination cut ties with the church.
• In the United Methodist Church, two ministers with gay sons drew national attention for separately presiding at their children’s same-sex weddings despite a church prohibition against doing so: the Reverend Thomas Ogletree was not disciplined by the church, but the Reverend Frank Schaefer went through several church court hearings, ultimately winning his case and keeping his clergy credentials.

The good news is that support for these so-called “reparative therapies” is falling; Alan Chambers, the leader of Exodus International, a ministry that tried to “help” Christians repress same-sex attraction, has apologized for the suffering the group caused and then shut the ministry down.

Sadly, though, while some strides have been made, Linda Robertson says some of the mothers who contact her through her Facebook page aren’t ready to completely accept their gay sons and daughters, and instead still believe that sexual orientation can be changed. Still others are moving away from the traditional evangelical view of how parents should respond when their children come out.

“I got a lot of emails from parents who said, ‘I don’t know one other parent of a gay child. I feel like in my community, I don’t have permission to love my child,’ They have a lot of questions. But then they’re going back to their churches and speaking to their pastors, speaking to their elders and speaking to their friends, saying, ‘We have a gay child. We love them and we don’t want to kick them out. How do we go forward?’” — Linda Robertson

I feel for parents like the Robertson’s, so coerced into believing their children are somehow wrong, or less than, or even deviant, by their faith. I feel for those parents who try and force their children to change their orientation, and do it so stridently, and so rabidly, that their children either completely cut them out of their lives, or take their own lives to end the suffering of thinking their parents don’t love them.

I am not a fan of organized religion, for those very reasons, but if there can be a rebirth of sorts, within the churches, and without the churches, by people of faith who choose to believe that God created us all in Hs … or Her … image, and that we are all worthy of loving who we love and being loved by our families, then this is a good thing.

Too bad Ryan had to die before his parents could see what harm religion can do, and before they realized that they, not their son, needed to change.

via LGBTQNation

Photo Credit: Elaine Thompson, AP