'Fundamentalism kills' - A gay man speaks about the rejection from his Christian family

Daniel Lawson

A really good Facebook friend of mine, Daniel Lawson, just published a personal account of his coming out in a fundamentalist Christian, right-wing family and how it nearly killed him. It's not an easy read and I commend him for having the courage to publicly tell his story. It should serve to remind us that the fight for our equality isn't solely for us, but also for our kids. So many folks like Daniel have been in this environment and have suffered for it.  We can't ever get blase about this battle because it's about more than rights. It's about the ability to love oneself even though others tell us that we shouldn't. And unfortunately sometimes, those "others" are the folks who are close to us:

From Medium:

It doesn’t take great powers of deduction to ascertain which of the “sinner” or “good Christian” categories I was railroaded into after coming out to my family over that Thanksgiving break after the dumpster fire Baptist college semester. As I watched my entire family change toward me before my eyes, it slowly began to dawn on me that there was, in fact, no going back now. Their supposed “love” had changed overnight to hostility, fear, anger and aggression. Their lifelong abusive ways, which always lay dormant and ready to strike, now ratcheted up into high gear. I had gone from one bad situation at the Bible college to now confronting an even worse, uglier mix at home, with no time to process the rapid traumatic chain of events that were altering the course of my life. My parents called up the local chapter of Focus on the Family and sought out a team of quack doctors and therapists to try to rid me of my “wicked lifestyle.” With each successive forced visit to one of these charlatans, the situation continued to spiral downwards as my parents’ anger and impatience grew that their son was not immediately “cured.”

 . . .Things reached a climax one night when my mom started an argument with me and suddenly, she flew into an irrational, senseless fit of rage and started chasing me down the hallway! I ducked into the bathroom and slammed my body against the door, locking it just in time as she barreled down against the door, howling and shrieking like a banshee and trying to beat down the door, screaming the whole time, “YOU’VE GOT THE DEVIL INSIDE OF YOU! YOU’VE GOT THE DEVIL INSIDE OF YOU!”

You can read the rest of it here. It's worth your time.