Homophobia is a subject close to my heart and it makes me
extremely angry and frustrated. If you
have read my other blogs, you already know my brother, Jason is gay. What you don’t know if how much homophobia
has affected his personal choices. Jason
was married to a beautiful woman, Angela in his early twenties. Jason knew he was gay; however a few of our
pastors and leaders at our church convinced him if he would get married and
live a heterosexual lifestyle he would be freed from the demonic spirit that
caused him to desire sexual relations with men.
I personally think these individuals are complete morons! Jason desperately wanted to be a minister and
a “Godly” man. So against my pleading
and hours of conversation, Jason proposed to his best friend Angela. Angela knew Jason struggled with homosexual desires;
however she too believed Jason’s sexuality would change once they were
married. Obviously being gay is not a
choice, so getting married did not suddenly make Jason straight. Jason and Angela filed for divorce after two
years of marriage. Angela remains
single because she is afraid to get involved in another relationship. Jason still struggles with the loss of his
best friend, Angela and how much pain he caused her
.
My point is homophobia within our church caused Jason to
make a terrible choice. Homophobia in
essence devastated Angela. I also lost
Angela as a friend. We were friends
before Jason married her and became much closer as sisters-in-law. Homophobia hurts everyone involved, not just
the homosexual individual. Trust me; I
have been deeply wounded by people who claimed to love me as result of having a
gay brother.
Thank you for sharing this story. Its really sad how people can be this way. Being a Catholic I hear it all the time from church and from family that gay people are so bad! and it really bothers me! Not only those who are homosexual suffer from homophobia but also those who surround that person. Its sad how after so many years of striving for equality and justice things can't be right. I just hope one day they will. Great post :)
ReplyDeleteJennifer,
ReplyDeleteThanks for being so open and sharing your experiences. In our society so many people have such different ideas about being homosexual and they often do not take into account the consequences of pushing their views on others. I hope that as time goes on the "stigma" about being homosexual will disappear as more and more individuals have supportive people to surround themselves with and are able to tackle societies false perceptions about them.
Aww, this is so sad :(
ReplyDelete