The words pierced through me like an arrow going straight through my heart. "You're a Freak! You're dirty! You're not a real woman! You hate your parents because you gave them no grandchildren! You are turning my children gay!"
I knew it was the ranting nonsense of a psychotic person, but the words hurt none the less. They hurt because many people were taught these myths that have been used against me and my gay brothers and sisters for centuries.
So called Christians (including the above mentiioned) who say they are followers of Jesus Christ seem to have forgotten his teachings. He said: "Love your enemies", "Turn the other cheek," and "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Sounds like love, peace, and forgiveness to me; not hatred, hostility, and judgement.
I also challenge any of you pseudo-Christians to find a quote in the Bible from Jesus even mentioning homosexuality. It's just not there! If it were such a sin, wouldn't He say so? Why is it not one of the Ten Commandments?
Why do you believe this toxic dribble about gays being immoral, that God condemns us, and that being homosexual is a choice?
I have my own theory about why some Evangelicals refuse to believe we were born gay. If it's genetic then God made us this way. And that would mean a perfect God made a mistake because to them, people who fall in love with someone of their own sex are mistakes, rejects, perverts, abnormal, freaks, queers, fill in the blank. So they believe the myth that it is a choice.
One question, all ye "choice believers": Why would one choose to be gay when we are called sinners, pedophiles, and abominations; can't legally marry in most places; can't visit our dying partners in the hospital; and face persecution, bullying, heckling, condemnation, and even death?
Why do you think it took me until I was 29 to come out of the closet? For years I tried desperately to be "straight." I wanted to please my parents and my church. I was miserable!
Fortunately, I came to my senses and stopped running away from who I am. I now feel blessed to be gay because it made me have to look at myself and God so I could take a leap of faith to declare my true inner self. It has brought me a "peace that surpasses all understanding."
The only real choice a GLBT person has is in deciding to accept one's true self or not. Some have chosen to stay in the closet, others to be reformed into being heterosexual (a path that has me really baffled), and a few have become nuns and priests to avoid the issue altogether.
However, as the "Focus on the Family's" failed "Love Won Out" program (an attempt to turn gays into straights) has shown, your can't change one's nature. No person can make another gay or not gay.
To me, a person's sexuality is a personal thing. I'm not into "outing" people.
All I can do is share my experience, face the onslaught, refuse to be anyone's scapegoat, stand up for myself and the GLBT community, be proud of who I am, know that God Loves Me, and realize that one day Love will win out over hatred because the Light is stronger than the Darkness.