The Gay Issue

I spent the first months of this year writing my latest work titled My Gay Brother, a book I didn’t want to write, but, I believe, was necessary in order to raise awareness about the pain suffered by some people who are born gay. The recent Supreme Court decision regarding gay marriage makes my words more than appropriate, especially for people who are not gay so they can comprehend the anguish experienced by those who are.

            My story reveals a man from a conflicted family who died alone and includes descriptions of the physical/emotional abuse my brother Rich had gone through. The narrative includes cruelty Rich endured as a child along with the mental anguish caused by a Michigan religious culture hostile to homosexuality.  And now that the Supreme Court ruling regarding marriage was made, we can all see hypocritical religious people coming out of the woodwork to add to the agony of those who have gone through so much.  The current “Christian” responses truly demonstrate the pain my brother endured most of his life. 

            The story of my brother’s life opens with his solitary death soon after the passing of our father. After describing the appalling responses of our “Christian” siblings to his death and the isolation of Rich, the account proceeds to a narrative of his early life in New Jersey.  There he had been loved by our family babysitter from his birth in 1949 until his passing in 2011. The story of Rich also reveals his attempt to learn sports as a child in order to gain our father's approval, plus marrying and fathering a child prior to accepting himself as a gay person. 

            Included are emails written between Rich and myself which show the creative, artistic, musical genius he was, as well as the tortured alcoholic who had only one familial connection. The book includes poems I shared with Rich and ends with a poem written for his memorial service. My friends in Carlsbad have commented that they truly felt for Rich while one person said something negative about homosexuality when I handed her the book.  It is my hope that after she and other people read this sad story that they will learn to be tolerant towards the gay community.

            And finally, those anti-gay, political Christians who think our country was founded on a Christian religion should re-read the history of the USA. It was because Christian believers were persecuted in the Old World that our founding fathers gave us freedom of religion in the United States Constitution.