Prayers for Bobby - Leroy Aarons [63]
The commission bowed to the pressure to excise the Gay Freedom Week reference, but went on record as supporting “gay civil rights,” further inflaming opponents. The commission then kicked the whole debate over to the city council.
The emotions stirred by the controversy brought elements of both the gay community and the religious right into the public spotlight. A group known as the Traditional Values Coalition, led locally by a minister named Lloyd Mashore, spoke for the antigay side. Larry Whitsell led a growing nucleus of previously closeted gays and lesbians who felt forced to go public in response to the ferocity of the assault taking place in their once comfortable little community.
The issue was to be addressed five days later by the city council. The gay proponents mobilized forces. Diablo Valley P-FLAG was asked to participate. Larry urged Mary to speak; her story would touch the heart of the most avid gay-hater. Mary was terrified. She had never in her life addressed so large a public audience.
On Monday, February 23, an overflow crowd spilled out of the council chamber and into the courtyard, where loudspeakers had been set up. A crush of 300 people inside and out struggled for seats or a view. Mary and Jackie waited in the courtyard for the proceedings to begin, drawing stares with their P-FLAG buttons that read: “We Love Our Gay and Lesbian Children.”
Mary was jumpy. “I’m really nervous,” she said. “I’m scared. I don’t know if I can do this.”
Jackie tried to reassure her, but wondered if she would again have to be Mary’s surrogate reader.
Next to them a minister was relating an anecdote to a companion in a voice loud enough to be easily heard. “I tried to run for office on the Human Relations Commission, but they named that faggot instead. I wrote him a letter saying, ‘We sing hymns at our church, what do you do with the hims at your church?’”
The two women were at once startled and steamed. Jackie could see Mary straighten her back, anger rising in her cheeks. When Mary’s turn came to speak, she moved to the dais with a sureness fueled by fury. Jackie thought, “God works in mysterious ways.”
“May I assure you, the council, and the residents of Concord,” Mary began, “that you have nothing to fear should Concord’s calendar of events include the word gay. What the people of Concord do have to fear is their lack of knowledge concerning gay and lesbian people.
“Because of my own lack of knowledge, I became dependent upon people in the clergy. When the clergy condemns a homosexual person to hell and eternal damnation, we the congregation echo ‘Amen.’ I deeply regret my lack of knowledge concerning gay and lesbian people. Had I allowed myself to investigate what I now see as Bible bigotry and diabolical dehumanizing slander against our fellow human beings, I would not be looking back with regret for having relinquished my ability to think and reason with other people—people I trust for truth and guidance in my life.”
Her voice low but firm, she turned to the subject of the loss of Bobby. The audience listened in rapt silence.
“God did not heal or cure Bobby as he, our family, and clergy believed he should. It is obvious to us now why he did not. God has never been encumbered by his child’s genetically determined sexuality. God is pleased that Bobby had a kind and loving heart. In God’s eyes kindness and love are what life is all about. I did not know that each time I echoed ‘Amen’ to eternal damnation, each time I referred to Bobby as sick, perverted, and a danger to our children, his self-esteem and personal worth were being destroyed. Finally, his spirit broke beyond repair. He could no longer rise