"The Truth About Hate..."

Here, Matt R. Salmon, the gay son of Congressman Matt Salmon (R-AZ), discusses his own beliefs and those of his parents with Anderson Cooper.  Matt explains why, although he despies the hateful positions that his parents espouse, he knows that they love him and that he loves them as well.  And from all appearances, Matt's father, who has spoken publicly of his opposition to marriage equality, and his mother, who worked on an anti-gay constitutional amendment in Arizona clearly love their son despite their misguided attitudes and beliefs about marriage equality.

I understand how Matt feels.  Unlike Matt, I never came out to my own mother, it was just something that we could never talk with one another about.  But she knew me better than anyone else in the world and she knew I was gay even when I didn't want to accept it myself. And because she loved me, much like Matt's parents, my mother in her own misguided ways supported Michigan's anti-gay marriage amendment.  I remember well, my mother quite strategicly asking me to write checks for her including some for contribution to anti-gay organizations like American Family Association and Liberty Legal Foundation.  I remember anti-gay bible tracts being left out for me to puruse and the occasional hurtful anti-gay comments that my mother carefully introduced into conversations that she knew I overheard but was not a party to. My mother loved me, and just like Matt's parents, she thought this was the way to help me.

Unlike Matt, at his age I lived in a world of fears, some of them were very real and others were not... But when I was Matt's age, I was not brave enough to love my mother enough, to share with her the reality of my heart and to seek to help her understand the truth of me.  Matt's parents may never fully understand, they may never fully accept their son and they may never "evolve" their views, but hearing their son speak of his love for them, I suspect they will, and this is the wonder of the brave new world we live in.

"Fear Eats the Soul"