steviesgone015

I am a 51 year old white female who has been married for 32 years and has two adult children (a daughter, 27 and a son, 24). I was raised as a conservative Christian (although I am not anymore) and am a moderate politically.

When our daughter was 20, she got and apartment with another friend, but they needed a third person to be able to afford their rent.  Enter Brian.  They met him through Roommates.com.   He was the girls' age and like them, a college student.  He told them right off the bat that he was gay.  They didn't care. They all hit it off and became best buds.  About six months later Brian decided he needed to come out to his family.  It was devastating.   His "Christian" family basically disowned him with his grandmother's parting words being, "I hope you get AIDS and die."  So our family rallied around him and took him in as one of our own.  Over the next two years he spent all his holidays with our family.  The three roomies all graduated and took jobs, Brian, in Colorado.  He and my daughter are still best friends.  When my daughter got engaged, she asked him to stand up with her as her honor attendant.  He was thrilled.  A couple of years ago he asked me if he ever found Prince Charming, would I walk him down the aisle and give him away at his wedding.  With tears in my eyes, I said, " YES!"

So what is the point of this story?  It is that before Brian came into my life, I thought that homosexuality was wrong and "yucky", when I gave it any thought at all.  It's how I was raised in church.  Meeting Brian (and subsequently several of our son's gay friends) has opened my eyes to the unkindness many Christians show toward the gay community.  I've been doing my part, in my small part of the world, to try to change the attitudes of family and friends.  I am in favor of gay marriage ( hopefully some day it will just be marriage) and have argued endlessly with family members about it.  We've agreed to disagree at this point, but I hope that they will eventually realize that love is love, no matter whom you love.