Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6905051-20131203105732/@comment-4839682-20140607213055

Sometimes the best thing for you is tough love.

I had a friend who was gay. His parents were very tightly strung conservative Christians. He was raised this way as well. When he finally got the courage to tell his parents, when he was 16, they sent him out of the country to a "pray the gay away" camp. Why? They loved their son and thought it was best for him. They'd been taught that being gay is wrong, and they wanted to "save" and "fix" their son. I don't know what happened to him there, but it messed him up for years afterward. He struggled with his faith and his sexuality. When he finally, at age 22, accepted himself and told his parents, they disowned him. They told him he'd fallen off his path, and they could not accept it. I believe they loved him very much, but that kind of extreme faith... it can warp a parent's thinking. They felt they'd done all they could, and their faith taught them that, in that situation, love meant they had to let him go.

I don't agree with it, but I can understand it. You spend your time as a parent trying to get your child to believe something, to be something. And when they're not, you do what you think you have to steer them back in the right direction. Sometimes it's.... crazy.