'You made your choice... but God did not intend for this unnatural lifestyle': Father disowns his gay son in heart-rending letter after he comes out
By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 21:42 GMT, 7 August 2012 | UPDATED: 04:42 GMT, 8 August 2012 It is probably one of the hardest things a gay man will ever have to do and one has decided to share his heartbreaking experience with the world. 'James', 33, from Pennsylvania, uploaded a letter sent to him by his father five years ago on internet messaging board "Reddit", shortly after he worked up the courage to come out to him. James reveals he called his father to tell him the news in August 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 "Okays". 'I decided to give him time to process the news. About a week later, and not long before my birthday, I received the following letter.' The letter starts: 'This is a difficult but necessary letter to write...' It continues: '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. 'You 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.' It concludes: 'Have a good birthday and a good life, no present exchanges will be accepted. Goodbye, Dad.' James decided to publish the letter in the wake of the Chick-fil-A controversy - in which CEO Dan Cathy said he was 'guilty as charged' when asked if he opposed gay marriage and that those who supported it evoked God's judgement. Speaking about his decision to MailOnline, he said: 'There is a continuing and increasing thumping here in the states that the excising of religion from the public sphere is somehow causing the tearing apart of families. 'While I understand that the experience I lived through is an extreme and not the belief for the majority of religious households, my disowning is indeed proof the opposite is also true. 'That the repeating tenor of "Homosexuality is bringing God's judgement upon us" also tears families apart.' He added to his Reddit posting: '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 one speeding ticket in my life. 'But every once in a while silently telling him what I think of him is likely the closest I'll ever be able to get to closure' 'Yet I am still seemingly deserving of this terrible act of hate and cowardice that one person can place on another.' James said he and his father still do not speak: 'I continue to abide by his wishes and have not contacted him. That's not to say that I continue to be impacted by his decision. 'But every once in a while silently telling him what I think of him is likely the closest I'll ever be able to get to closure.' James said he realized he was gay in the seventh grade but that fear of losing his father's support kept him from saying anything until he was 27. 'So, for those intervening years, I'd complicity laughed at very anti-gay jokes he made, pushed aside comment after comment about my "future wife" and just carried on.' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185129/Homosexuality-You-choice-wrong-Fathers-letter-disowns-gay-son.html#ixzz22wAOQ03M
