Gay man’s tweet about ex-Jehovah’s Witness parents loving him goes viral
Azya Babula says his parents now accept him for being gay.
A gay man has gone viral on social media after he posted about how his parents, both ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses, came to accept his sexuality.
US-based Azya Babula posted on Twitter on Friday (November 23), explaining how his formerly Jehovah’s Witnesses parents have come to accept that he is gay.
“My parents(ex jevoha’s witnesses) finally told me they loved me and fully accapeted me being gay [sic],” he said.
“And then we had a full 2 hour convo about boys and exes and stuff. 21 years later y’all and the burden has been lifted off my shoulders IM SO HAPPY BUT CANT STOP CRYING.”
Former Jehovah’s Witnesses parents tell Babula they love him for being gay
The 21-year-old included a video of him looking teary-eyed and smiling into the camera.
His tweet, which has been “liked” more than 400,000 times, quickly went viral.
In a later tweet, Babula said: “You guys don’t understand; we fought for so long our relationship was horrible. I love them and I finally got the one thing I wanted from them and it was their love and acceptance.❤️”
He added: “Again thank u everyone for the enormous amount of love❤️ I’m so overwhelmed and emotional ily all like this truly means so much to me [sic].”
My parents(ex jevoha’s witnesses) finally told me they loved me and fully accapeted me being gay and then we had a full 2 hour convo about boys and exes and stuff. 21 years later y’all and the burden has been lifted off my shoulders IM SO HAPPY BUT CANT STOP CRYING pic.twitter.com/vGAE65jw5I
— Azya (@Azthecutest) November 24, 2018
Speaking to PinkNews, Babula said that he “tried” to come out as gay in middle school, but that his parents were still Jehovah’s Witnesses and didn’t accept him.
He said his relationship with his parents became “very strained,” adding that he became severely depressed and that his grades dropped when he was in high school.
Babula said that his parents eventually stopped being Jehovah’s Witnesses, when he was in his last year of high school, because of the “hatred” in the Christian denomination.
He said that, at first, they still did not accept his sexuality.
Babula says his ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses parents have said sorry
“My mom knew but we just never talked about it it was taboo in my family,” he explained.
He then added: “But, finally, two days ago, we had an open discussion about marriage and kids and where I see myself and my parents even threw some jokes in.
Azya Babula posted a photo of him with his parents on Instagram. (azyababula/Instagram)
“They finally told me that they understand that it’s not a choice, apologized that it took so long, and now I can freely talk about about it.
“But it was a very long and hard journey to get here.”
Twitter users have praised Babula for his post, which has been re-tweeted more than 50,000 times.
One person wrote: “I love you! Can we be friends?!! ”
Another said: “As a mature mum, I just wanted to grab you close and hug you! Acceptance of who you are, will be transformative, big hugs!”
