Daddy, Why Did You Hurt Those People

“Daddy, why did you do what you did to New York and the Pentagon? Why did you hurt all those people?" John’s son innocently looked him in the eye and asked him as John was tucking him into bed.

“What???????” Asked John in a sense of shock. “I had nothing to do with what happened. They were bad men who hated the US and wanted to hurt us. What makes you think I was involved?”

“Some kids at school say that Jerry Falwelld [sic] says that gay people are responsible for what happened” John’s son said with tears in his eyes. “I know you didn’t do it Daddy, but why would that man say that!”

According to the Washington Blade, Jerry Falwell said "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -all of them who have tried to secularize American - I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen,'" Falwell said on the program, The 700 Club, which was broadcast nationally.

“ Well, I totally concur," Robertson told Falwell, "and the problem is we have adopted their agenda at the highest levels of our government." And now John and Steve’s son want to know how his daddies could have done terrorist acts. As John asked me, “How do you explain something like that to an 8 year old?”

As we all try to make our children feel safe at night, Gay and Lesbian parents must also battle the prejudices that call their very patriotism into question. They need to make their children feel safe with mommy or daddy!

These were careless, hateful words that Falwell and Robertson have already apologized for saying, but unfortunately, the damage can’t be apologized away. With all the publicity, almost everyone knows what was said. But no one hears the apology. It goes out into empty air. The words people say can hurt a lot of people. What if a person actually believed Falwell’s words and decided to take vigilante action against the gays and lesbians he knows. Innocent people who are every much a part of this country as anyone else could lose their lives because two “respected” Christian leaders made irresponsible hurtful comments.

John and Steve have tried to explain this to their son, as have many other gay and lesbian parents. All we can do with parents is let our children know that the words people say can hurt others and that their parents love them and wants what is best for them. We can also live our lives the best we can, going the extra mile, trying to gain credibility so that people hearing hateful word’s like jerry Falwell’s will see them for the empty rhetoric they are. As gay and lesbian parent’s we need to prove ourselves over and over to justify our right to love whom we do.

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