L to R: Faith, Michael
Michael was in his teens when he told me he was gay. I was surprised because I just didn’t give it any thought. It never crossed my mind about his sexuality and it did not matter to me. He always had all kinds of friends who were either gay or lesbian or what have you, to me they were artsy and interesting people. Michael was into punk rock; I think he was doing that to see how it would affect me, like he was trying to shock me, but I did not try to sort out his friends because everyone had their own personality. I care more about peoples’ personalities as opposed to their sexuality.
I just accepted Michael as gay. It’s like, “You’re my child, and I don’t think anything is wrong with you.” Besides, there is nothing wrong with being gay. Some people try to use religion to justify their opposition to homosexuality. They will say things like, “The Bible says…” and my response is, “Really? And what are you doing? You’re doing everything under the sun and that’s the first thing you holler about.”
People should stop worrying about what someone is doing behind closed doors. Just love the person; love your child.