- ‘You
can tell me anything’
- my
mother said to my brother and I
- ‘Except
that you’re queer’.
- Words
like that leave an indelible impression
- On a
child who knows they have
- Special
relevance for him.
-
- ‘But
you are gay, aren’t you’
- I would
scream as I
- looked
at myself in the car mirror.
- ‘No. It
can’t be true’
- The man
in the mirror
- Would
reply.
-
- ‘What
do you think of her?
- My
friends would ask
- As they
looked at the girls in Sports Illustrated.
- ‘Absolutely nothing’
- I would say in a voice so
quiet
- That only God or the devil
could hear.
-
- ‘If you are faithful, I
will cure you’
- said my aunt,
- masquerading as the Lord.
- So I
was in the church
- Every
time the doors opened
- Hoping
for my reward.
-
- ‘You
can’t turn off
- your
homosexual attractions’
- said a
voice of reason in my head.
- ‘In
which case, I’ll turn off God’.
- Not
realising that the two
- Should
be reconciled instead.
-
- Because
parents will still love you
- Even it
takes time for them to accept you
- And God
will be with you
- And
bring richness and fullness to your life
- No
matter what those Pharisees might say.
