Quote of the Day - From the Father of a Gay Identifying Child

Huffington Post has a post by the husband of HuffPost blogger Amelia, who has asked numerous times about what he think about his 7-year-old son identifying as gay. In the post, Dave, hits the nail on the head in my view and responds as any DECENT AND LOVING parent would and should:

The idea that I would be immediately disappointed/angry/suicidal that my son identifies as gay offends me, both as a father and simply as a human. It seems the further we all move along into the 21st century in terms of technology, the more some parts of society regress to the 1950s -- or the Victorian era, if we're being honest -- when it comes to ideas of social mores and attitudes on certain subjects: Ward Cleaver would have been angry if the Beaver had come out of the closet, so surely a father 60 years later would have the same reaction. I mean, come on, that's only common sense! Excuse me while I roll my eyes for an hour or two.

I don't see how a father, or any parent, can look at their son, the one they've loved since before the child was even born, and upon hearing him say, "Dad, I'm gay," turn their back on him. The comments from men much older than me telling stories just like that break my heart. My wife always wants to adopt the teenage kids who write to her; I want to adopt the 60-year-old men who cry when they read that I tell my son how awesome he is. I don't care if they are as old as my father; they deserve love just as much as anyone else.

Getting married is up to him; single or married, he's still my son. If he and his maybe-some-day-far-far-in-the-future boyfriend want to tie the knot, they just need to tell his mother and me where to be, and we'll be there. Hopefully by then they can get married in whichever state they want, but if not, we'll just travel to one of the cool states and have a great time.

And the "flamer" comments... where to begin? Do effeminate men exist? Of course. Are all gay men effeminate? Of course not. But does it matter? Whether he grows up to be the manliest man in all mandom or the most effeminate guy to ever hit the drag-show circuit, he is my son. I want him to be loved, comfortable with himself and his friends, and happy.

Would that more of the self-congratulatory pious folks got this simple message. They continue to make Christianity something foul and ugly where the principal message is one of hate. Jesus, I suspect, would be disgusted. He might even utter the word "Pharisees."