Playing Parents of “Gays” For Suckers

One of the most seductive pieces of homosexual propaganda we’ve ever seen targeted at Catholics has come across our desks. It appeared in the mass-circulation St. Anthony Messenger (July), put out by the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province in Cincinnati. The article is titled “When Our Son Told Us He Was Gay,” by Helena Thomas (a pseudonym, as are all the names in the article).

Helena’s 19-year-old stepson, Larry, announced out of the blue that he’s homosexual. The occasion? Larry was “booted out of the Marines for being gay.” It’s a “total shock,” says Helena.

The great concern of Helena, who loves Larry a lot, is, “Will we lose him?” She also worries that Larry will be the victim of a “hate crime.” The big worry of her husband, Alan, is AIDS. Alan also worries about whether he was an adequate father.

Helena tells us, “As the weeks pass, I pray for understanding.” She goes to bookstores and buys Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth and Their Allies by Ellen Bass and Kate Kaufman. Helena finds this passage most arresting: “Often a gay or lesbian child turns out to be very special. They are sometimes very close in a way the others aren’t — if you accept them.” More than anything, Helena wants to be close to Larry. The message is clear: To achieve that you must accept him as he is.

Helena then connects with Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays (PFLAG), a group of pro-“gay” parents. She reads their literature and learns that “Scientists…believe sexual orientation is set early in life, perhaps before birth…. There’s no evidence that parents’ behavior or personalities cause a child to be homosexual.” This questionable “science” gets Alan off the hook. Hey, it’s nobody’s fault. What music to the ears of such distraught or confused parents!