Huffington Postさんのインスタグラム写真 - (Huffington PostInstagram)「"My family attended a fundamentalist church whenever its doors were open. They preached that God loved everyone ― except homosexuals," writes HuffPost guest writer Jake McPherson. "Gay men and lesbians were irredeemable. There was no salvation for me. There was no love for me." "I finished high school still deep in the closet and chose to attend a fundamentalist-affiliated university. The closet there was very big and contained many students," adds McPherson. "I reached the pinnacle of repression when I married a woman. I honestly loved her. She was and still is a wonderful woman. We lived together for many years and parented three children, all while I continued to drink. And drink. And drink. I was miserable, and at some point, the martinis just didn’t bring joy or peace ― real or pretend ― anymore." "In 1998, when I was 35 years old, I came out to myself and my wife," McPherson writes. "My wife reacted with love and told me to find myself. I didn’t immediately tell our children since they were still very young at the time. In 2000, my wife and I separated, a necessary but still gut-wrenching event for both of us. In 2001, I called my mother and came out. She was horrified." "She didn’t say anything about how this would affect my relationship with my father and her, but she was very upset. I always assumed she told my dad, but I never directly asked," adds McPherson. "For the past 19 years, I never thought my dad didn’t know I was gay. Our weekly phone calls continued as they always had, but I never overtly mentioned any of the men I was dating." "At some point in the last two years my niece gave my father an iPhone, which he was especially excited to learn to use so that he could receive photos of his great-grandchildren. From there, it was only a matter of time before he joined Facebook and, I’m assuming, discovered my profile, which shows me as an out, proud gay man." "On January 4, 2020 at 9:56 a.m., my phone rang. It was my father calling. When I answered he told me, 'It’s about this homosexuality. Your mother and I can’t condone that. You are not to contact us in any way ever again.'" Read his full essay at our link in bio. // 📷 Jake McPherson」8月11日 22時17分