Mother outraged her son won’t ‘stop being gay’ gets a perfect lesson on hypocrisy
The mother was worried members of her church group would make fun of her for “having a gay son”. (Envato)
A perfect lesson on hypocrisy by an agony aunt to a mother who is outraged that her son won’t “stop being gay” has gone viral.
The 2013 article was rediscovered by users of the sub-Reddit “Murdered by Words”, which describes itself as “a place for well-constructed put-downs, comebacks, and counter-arguments”.
The mother wrote in to the Chicago Tribune’s column “Ask Amy”, to tell agony aunt Amy Dickinson that she had discovered that her 17-year-old son “is a homosexual”.
She said she was fearful that members of her church group would find out, and “make fun of me for having a gay child”.
Just try not being straight for awhile. from r/MurderedByWords
The mother continued: “He won’t listen to reason, and he will not stop being gay.
“I feel as if he is doing this just to get back at me for forgetting his birthday for the past three years — I have a busy work schedule.
“Please help him make the right choice in life by not being gay. He won’t listen to me, so maybe he will listen to you.”
She signed off her letter: “Feeling Betrayed.”
In an iconically sarcastic response, Dickinson told the mother: “You could teach your son an important lesson by changing your own sexuality to show him how easy it is.
“Try it for the next year or so: Stop being a heterosexual to demonstrate to your son that a person’s sexuality is a matter of choice — to be dictated by one’s parents, the parents’ church and social pressure.”
Dickinson went on to say that she was sure the idea would “evoke a reaction that your sexuality is at the core of who you are”, and added: “The same is true for your son. He has a right to be accepted by his parents for being exactly who he is.”
The agony aunt said by forgetting her his birthday for three years, she was telling him she had “forgotten his presence in the world”, and suggested that if the mother could not accept her gay son, “it might be safest for him to live elsewhere”.
The boy in the story, who would now be 24, has never been identified, but one Redditor wrote: “I hope immediately as her son turned 18 he disappeared from his mom’s life completely.”
