Johnw1104 said:
Well given he said he apologized while she was alive it seems that he did change his mind much earlier, but this also would have happened in a time where it was absolutely normal to still be publicly homophobic so one father's acceptance just wasn't enough. That's the thing with entrenched views and beliefs that you've held your whole life and are shared by your community, though: they almost always go completely unchallenged until you personally have cause to reevaluate them, as the people around you only reinforce your preconceptions. That's the sad thing I've seen many times with kids who came out in the past (still happens today, but less often), as their parents' knee-jerk reaction was often to reject it and attempt to "fix" them. Generally, the parents come around rather quickly once they've had time to digest what has happened and realize they love their kid far more than some unfounded hostility towards homosexuals that had been drilled into them from the time they were born. The end result is often that former "apathetic" homophobes become some of the most ardent supporters of that community, as they feel the need to protect their kids from the homophobes they know from personal experience are myriad in their communities. The one time I can say I personally experienced something like this was my former apathy towards the drug-addicted, as once I'd had friends and family go through it and I saw how easy it is to fall into and how difficult it is to get out I realized my previous view was simply lazy and inconvenient so that I didn't have to take their plight seriously. Sometimes it requires that personal experience as it otherwise doesn't even occur to you to reconsider your views. |
He did apologize early, but for many children the words of parents can sometimes last forever. The amount of regret he most likely posseses is unmeasurable.
A lot of people seem to ignore that these beliefs literally get passed down. The dude grew up accepting it, and he had to pay the consequences. A lot of people only look at racism and homophobia, but it extends to everyone honestly. Hell, even depressed people are still given a bad rep (Paul Dickhead Watson says depressed people are 'childish' and should 'actually experience something bad and grow up'). It's seriously unfortunate that they're given such awful viewpoints that results in terrible situations.
