For today's edition of Know Your LGBT History, I'm combining my original focus of spotlighting movies and television shows and my new focus on featuring real events from the lives of gay historical figures.
On August 27, 1983, a 20-year-old gay man named Bobby Griffith committed suicide by jumping over an a freeway overpass in Portland, OR.
As it turns out, four years before his death, his mother, Mary, was attempting to get him to "cure" his homosexuality through prayer.
Naturally his entire family, especially his mother, was devastated by his suicide. His death resonated with her so much that she began to question her fundamentalist Christian beliefs and realized that there was nothing wrong with him being gay.
Mary Griffith subsequently began crusading for the rights of gays and was especially vocal in getting parents to love and accept their gay children.
In 1996, the book chronicling these events, Prayers for Bobby, was published. In 2009, a motion picture of the same name premiered on Lifetime Network.
I enjoyed the motion picture and Sigourney Weaver as Mary gave an excellent performance. However, in the deepest part of my heart, I hate it when the gay community receives allies this way, i.e. a parent losing her child in order to see a basic truth - that homosexuality is not a handicap and parental acceptance of their child's God-given sexual orientation is, more times than not, the difference between life and death.
Mary Griffith should be saluted because she transformed her loss into something which has and will continue to save the lives of countless gay children. And for that, I admire her, tremendously:
Past Know Your LGBT History posts:
On August 27, 1983, a 20-year-old gay man named Bobby Griffith committed suicide by jumping over an a freeway overpass in Portland, OR.
As it turns out, four years before his death, his mother, Mary, was attempting to get him to "cure" his homosexuality through prayer.
Naturally his entire family, especially his mother, was devastated by his suicide. His death resonated with her so much that she began to question her fundamentalist Christian beliefs and realized that there was nothing wrong with him being gay.
Mary Griffith subsequently began crusading for the rights of gays and was especially vocal in getting parents to love and accept their gay children.
In 1996, the book chronicling these events, Prayers for Bobby, was published. In 2009, a motion picture of the same name premiered on Lifetime Network.
I enjoyed the motion picture and Sigourney Weaver as Mary gave an excellent performance. However, in the deepest part of my heart, I hate it when the gay community receives allies this way, i.e. a parent losing her child in order to see a basic truth - that homosexuality is not a handicap and parental acceptance of their child's God-given sexual orientation is, more times than not, the difference between life and death.
Mary Griffith should be saluted because she transformed her loss into something which has and will continue to save the lives of countless gay children. And for that, I admire her, tremendously:
Past Know Your LGBT History posts:
