Reddit user RegBarc just posted a really disturbing, heartbreaking letter, which has already gone viral on social media sites. It's a letter from his father. It was written five years ago, when he finally worked up the guts to come out to his dad. RegBarc writes:
In August of 2007, I finally built up the courage to tell my father I was gay. The moment I said it, the phone got quiet and he got off the phone after a few "Okay"s. I decided to give him time to process the news.
A week later, right before his birthday, he received a handwritten note from his father. In it, he was summarily disowned, completely cut out from his dad's life. It was seemingly done without much heartache, and years of being raised by this man were effortlessly put in the proverbial toilet and flushed. Pure, unadulterated hate: that's the only way to describe something so heartless, soulless, and cruel.
Follow me below the fold for the letter and more.
Here is the letter:
If you have trouble reading some of the handwriting, here is what it says:
James: This is a difficult but necessary letter to write.
I hope your telephone call was not to receive my blessing for the degrading of your lifestyle. I have fond memories of our times together, but that is all in the past.
Don’t expect any further conversations With me. No communications at all. I will not come to visit, nor do I want you in my house.
You’ve made your choice though Wrong it may be. God did not intend for this unnatural lifestyle.
If you choose not to attend my funeral, my friends and family will understand.
Have a good birthday and good life.
No present exchanges will be accepted.
Goodbye,
Dad
And, with that, it was over. A father-son relationship completely destroyed, all because the dad doesn't approve of whom the son loves.
RegBarc writes:
I've never done drugs, was an excellent student, an obedient child (far less trouble than many of my classmates), didn't drink until I was 22 because it terrified me, and have had just 1 speeding ticket in my life. Yet I am still seemingly deserving of this terrible act of hate and cowardice that one person can place on another. 5 years on and I am still doing fine, though this letter saunters into my mind every once in a while. When it does, I say without hesitation: F**k you, Dad.
This is nothing new to many LGBTs. Disowning is far, far more common than it should be. Just
take a look at the numbers of LGBT homeless youth. On an abstract level, this is indeed nothing new. But to look at this letter, an artifact of hate and a reminder that no matter how far we've come we still have lightyears to go, is nevertheless jarring. Necessarily jarring.
RegBarc writes something else that I think is important:
It's important to know just what this zealotry from Bryan Fisher, Maggie Gallagher, Dan Cathy, et al., does to everyday people.
Of course, he's right. During this whole Chick-fil-A thing, when bigots and haters kept harping on "free speech,"
this is what they were supporting. This is indeed what Dan Cathy and his company advocate and fund. This is what Bryan Fischer pushes on his radio program. This is what they want. This is a down-to-earth example of how hate speech can and does impact real people.