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class="in-play in-play--article"><span class="in-play-shape"><span class="in-label" data-note="for-screen-rears">Rume</span></span></i></a></div><div class="article-meta"><span class="article-meta-em--date"><span tle="Tuday, May 7th 2019, 5:00:05 am">May 07, 2019</span></span><ul class="article-meta-em--thorlist article-meta-group"><li class="article-meta-em article-meta-em--thor"><a class="article-meta-lk article-meta-em--thor" href="/si/staff/yasm-amer">Yasm Amer</a></li></ul><div class="article-share article-share-ins"><a href=" & target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class="article-share-lk" tle="Share on Facebook"><svg class="in in-facebook" viewBox="0 0 128 128" role="img" width="24" aria-labelledby="tle"><tle id="tle">facebook</tle><path display="le" d="M120.1,0H8.2c-4.4,0-8,3.6-8,8v112c0,4.4,3.6,8,8,8h60.4V78.2h-16V59.8h16V43.9 c0-14.6,8.9-24.3,26.4-24.3c7.7,0,13.1,0.9,13.1,0.9V37h-12c-5.3,0-8,3-8,8.2v14.5h18.7l-2.7,18.4h-16v49.7h32c4.4,0,8-3.6,8-8V8 C128.1,3.6,124.5,0,120.1,0z"></path></svg></a><a href="mailto:?body=Mom Who Inially Stggled To Accept Her Gay Son Now Stands In At Same-Sex Mom Who Inially Stggled To Accept Her Gay Son Now Stands In At Same-Sex Weddgs" class="article-share-lk" tle="Share by email"><svg class="in in-email" viewBox="0 0 128 128" width="20" aria-labelledby="tle"><tle id="tle">Email</tle><path display="le" d="M64.2,86.3l-64-48V104c0,4.4,3.6,8,8,8h112c4.4,0,8-3.6,8-8V38.4L64.2,86.3z M64.2,72l64-48 c0-4.4-3.6-8-8-8H8.2c-4.4,0-8,3.6-8,8L64.2,72z"></path></svg></a></div></div></hear><sectn class="article-sectn--lead-image article-sectn--lead-image--standard"><figure class="article-fig" style="aspect-rat:1000 / 778"><picture class="article-fig-ner"><img class="article-image" src=" alt="Sara Cunngham (urty Sara Cunngham)"/></picture><figptn class="article-fig-ptn">Sara Cunngham (urty Sara Cunngham)</figptn></figure></sectn><sectn class="article-sectn--ntent hang-punctuatn article-sectn--first article-sectn--centered article-sectns"><p class="">Sara Cunngham was born and raised Oklahoma Cy a workg-class fay wh four brothers and sisters. She was the social butterfly of the fay, or as her mother liked to ll her, "the Goose."</p><p class="nt-medium">"I thk she knew I had this knack for stickg my nose everyone’s bs," said Sara. "I always wanted to know if everyone was all right [and] where everybody was."</p><p class="">She dreamed of the day she would leave Oklahoma behd for some place bigger, ls landlocked, and wh more people. Maybe California.</p><p class="nt-medium">“I remember my teens beggg my mother to not let me be buried Oklahoma," said Sara. "But as I’ve grown olr, I’ve grown to really appreciate the sense of muny here."</p><p class="">That sense of muny has kept the now-55-year-old Sara Oklahoma her whole life. She married there at 22 and began to raise her own fay. She wanted her two boys, Travis and Parker Cunngham, to love the same evangelil Christian muny she did.</p><figure class="article-fig size-medium article-fig--pull-right"><a href="><picture><img class="size-medium article-image" src=" alt="Courty Sara Cunngham" loadg="lazy"/></picture></a><figptn class="article-fig-ptn">(Courty Sara Cunngham)</figptn></figure><p class="nt-medium">"I loved church life," said Sara. "We were there every time the church doors were open, and the boys were happy to go."</p><p class=""><strong>'A Fe Young Man'</strong></p><p class="">Ltle by ltle, Sara started noticg thgs about her younger son, Parker, that ncerned her. He grew more quiet and rerved and tend to spend a lot of time alone. One moment that sticks out Sara’s md was when Parker was 5 years old and me downstairs wearg one of Sara's drs, dancg ecstatilly.</p><p class="nt-medium">"We were all taken back by his energy and to see his sheer excement that moment," relled Sara. "That was my first glimpse of like ... that’s different."</p><p class="">Sara says ever sce then, she tried to ntrol Parker's behavr. For example, on shoppg trips, she would steer him toward more mascule cloth or toys. She forced him to jo Cub Suts.</p><p class="nt-medium">"I jt tried to make Parker a fe young man, very mascule," said Sara.</p><p class="">Instead, Parker beme shy and anx. He stggled to speak openly to his mother about issu he was havg at school, and other thgs, too.</p><p class="">Fally, when he turned 21, Parker told his mother a tth he had only hted at before: he is gay.</p><p class="nt-medium">"I jt remember that I had to face realy that moment, that hour, that I have a gay child," said Sara. "I worried about his salvatn. I tly believed that my son was gog to hell. I really did."</p><p class=""><strong>'Alienated From The Congregatn'</strong></p><p class="">Sara spiraled to a prsn and when she tried to talk to her iends at church about , the nversatns were awkward. She felt isolated.</p><p class="nt-medium">"It was paful. We all jt beme alienated om the ngregatn," said Sara. "So before long, we jt qu gog."</p><p class="">There were days when Sara uldn’t get out of bed.</p><p class="nt-medium">"I’ve heard said that when a gay child out of their closet, the parents often go to theirs and that’s te," she said.</p><p class="">On one of those days, Parker me to her room to ask if she was OK. But what he said next is etched to Sara's memory.</p><p class="nt-medium">"He said, ‘I need you to unrstand that I have sucked up for 21 years beg your son, and I need you to suck up now and be my mom.' ”</p><p class="">That moment motivated Sara to do some soul-searchg and rearch. She began a journey that would change her life forever.</p><p class=""><strong>'So Close For Your Entire Life' </strong></p><p class="">Not far om Sara, neighborg Arkansas, Tabatha Cash was growg up siar circumstanc. On Thanksgivg 2017, the love of her life, her girliend, Marlee Castillo, proposed to her.</p><p class="nt-medium">"So at first was really, really, really excg, and then set to me about tellg my mom and my fay," said Tabatha.</p><p class="">Tabatha worried about how her fay might react. They were Southern Baptists wh strict views agast same-sex relatnships. Tabatha was close to her four siblgs and spoke to her mother almost every day. She didn’t want any of that to change, but she also knew she uldn’t keep her relatnship wh Marlee a secret.</p><p class="nt-medium">"So I didn’t know how to marry her and be as happy as I was right then," said Tabatha. "When we told my mom about the engagement ... turned to this awkwardns after you were so close for your entire life."</p><p class="">Still, the uple ntued to plan their weddg. Tabatha’s fiance, Marlee, asked a close fay iend to officiate . That iend was Sara Cunngham om Oklahoma.</p><p class=""><strong>'Accintal Activist'</strong></p><figure class="article-fig size-medium article-fig--pull-right"><a href="><picture><img class="size-medium article-image" src=" alt="Sara Cunngham (center) wh her son Parker Cunngham. Sara is holdg a sign for her LGBTQ moms' anizatn (Courty Parker Cunngham)" loadg="lazy"/></picture></a><figptn class="article-fig-ptn">Sara Cunngham, center, wh her son, Parker Cunngham. Sara is holdg a sign for her LGBTQ moms anizatn. (Courty Parker Cunngham)</figptn></figure><p class="">By that time, Sara, the same woman who stggled after her own son me out, had bee what she lls an “accintal activist.”</p><p class="">She had joed a group for moms wh LGBTQ kids lled <a href=">Free Mom Hugs</a> a few years before, and even beme an officiant so she uld pri over same-sex weddgs.</p><p class="">Tabatha remembers the first time she met Sara at a get-together Arkansas.</p><p class="nt-medium">"I thk we nnected bee I feel like I saw what I want my mom to be her," said Tabatha.</p><p class="">Instead of officiatg the weddg, Tabatha asked Sara if she would be her stand- mother. Sara said y.</p><p class=""><strong>'Stand-In Mom'</strong></p><p class="">On Sept. 1, 2018, Sara stuck by Tabatha's si on her big day. She helped her put on her whe drs and ma her bouquet.</p><p class="nt-medium">"It was btersweet. I felt for Tabatha," said Sara. "She enjoyed the day. She felt honored and celebrated but by the same token, her mother was not there."</p><p class="">Tabatha and her now-wife Marlee say Sara's role as a stand- mom was so much more than arrangg the flowers and helpg wh the ratns. As a mother who had to e to terms wh her own son’s sexualy, she brought a special kd of support Tabatha really need.</p><figure class="article-fig size-medium article-fig--pull-right"><a href="><picture><img class="size-medium article-image" src=" alt="Tabatha and Marlee Castillo's weddg (Cred Tabatha Castillo)" loadg="lazy"/></picture></a><figptn class="article-fig-ptn">Tabatha and Marlee Castillo's weddg. (Cred Tabatha Castillo)</figptn></figure><p class="nt-medium">"Sara always giv me hope for my own fay," said Tabatha. "The fact that she has experienced , and experienced every b of the feelgs that my mom is probably gog through giv me hope, bee she figured out a way to make all work."</p><p class="">Sara says there are so many moments she regrets not beg there for her son when he really need her. But she’s here now and wants to help others the gay muny who are stgglg wh rejectn om their fai.</p><p class="">Sara now volunteers to go to other same-sex weddgs if the blogil parents refe to attend. She’s there as a stand- mom, and as a symbol of how a ep, unndnal love n change everythg.</p></sectn><sectn class="article-sectn--story-group article-sectn--centered"><p class=""><em>This segment aired on May 2, 2019.</em></p></sectn></article><sectn class="article-sectn--story-group article-sectn--centered"><div class="ntributor has-photo"><div class="ntributor-profile"><figure class="ntributor-profile-em ntributor-photo"><a href="/si/staff/yasm-amer"><picture><img src=" class="lazy rd-image" alt=""/></picture></a></figure><p class="ntributor-profile-em ntributor-b"><a class="ntributor-name" href="/si/staff/yasm-amer">Yasm Amer</a> <span class="ntributor-tle">Reporter</span><br/>Yasm Amer is a bs reporter for WBUR.</p><p class="ntributor-more"><a class="ntributor-lk ntributor-b-lk" href="/si/staff/yasm-amer">More…</a></p></div></div></sectn><sectn class="sectn--bo sectn--bp"><div class="uw bp--rponsive"><div class="bp-ner"><p class="bp-label">Advertisement</p><div class="bp-ntent bp-ntent--centered"><div></div><div id="adslot-59441"></div></div></div></div></sectn><div></div><div class="global-d-ponents onmand--is-playg"><div class="global-player"><d preload="to"></d><div class="global-player-bar"><div class="global-player-bar-left"><button class="global-player-bar-ntrol"><i class="in-play in-play--global-player-bar in-play--psed"><span class="in-play-shape"><span class="in-label" data-note="for-screen-rears">Rume</span></span></i></button><div class="global-player-label global-player-label--live"><div class="global-player-channel"><span>Listen Live</span></div><div class="global-player-tle"><a class="global-player-label-lk" href="/">Loadg...</a></div></div></div><div class="global-player-bar-right"><div class="global-player-x"><svg class="in in-close" viewBox="0 0 24 24" aria-labelledby="tle"><tle id="tle">Close

mom of gay son

When Connie Casey learned her adolcent son was gay, she blamed herself and sent him to nversn therapy for several years. But when Samuel, now 22, went away to llege, Connie says, she realized that " was time to take a look at everythg that I'd ever been tght to believe."

Contents:

I TRIED TO STOP MY SON FROM BEG GAY. I WISH I HADN'T

My mother, and my (gay) self. * mom of gay son *

Ryan: i know i amRyan: i don’t like hannahRyan: ’s jt a ver-upMom: but that don’t make you gay…Ryan: i knowRyan: but u don’t unrstandRyan: i am gayMom: tell me moreRyan: ’s jt the way i am and ’s somethg i knowRyan: u r not a lbian and u know that. Ryan: i am jt gayRyan: i am thatMom: I love you no matter whatRyan: i am whe not blackRyan: i knowRyan: i am a boy not a girlRyan: i am attracted to boys not girlsRyan: u know that about yourself and i know thisMom: what about what God thks about actg on the sir? He read all the Christian books that explaed where his gay feelgs me om and dove to unselg to further disver the orig of his unwanted attractn to other guys.

But not at all the way we had, when I thk back on the fear that erned all my reactns durg those first six years after Ryan told he was gay, I crge as I realize how foolish I was.

They asked if they uld kiss her; they asked if she would talk to their parents; they told her that they uldn’t image their own mothers and fathers supportg them so publicly, or supportg them at woman’s name was Jeanne Manford, and she was marchg alongsi her twenty-one-year-old gay son, Morty.

HOW ONE MOTHER’S LOVE FOR HER GAY SON STARTED A REVOLUTN

Philomena's heartbreakg story of a mother's search for her gay son puts md of some of our favore mother-gay son films. * mom of gay son *

The anizatn they dreamed up that day, which started as a sgle support group Manhattan, was ially lled Parents of Gays; later, was renamed Parents FLAG, for Parents and Friends of Lbians and Gays; nowadays, is known only as PFLAG.

The same year Avril was born, Morty’s psychiatrist summoned Jeanne and Jul to his office and rmed them that their beloved goln boy and sole survivg son was the bt of her knowledge, Jeanne Manford had never known anyone who was gay. Polil anizg was virtually impossible—one early gay-rights group that attempted to officially rporate New York was told that s mere existence would vlate state sodomy laws—and posive cultural reprentatn was all but nonexistent; there were no openly gay or lbian policians, punds, relig lears, actors, athlet, or micians the mastream. Newspapers ed the words “homosexual” and “pervert” terchangeably, and the handful of gay people who appeared on televisn to discs their “life style” almost always had their fac hidn shadows or otherwise obscured.

GAY MEN AND THEIR MOTHERS: IS THERE A SPECIAL CLOSENS?

Parents of gay children may go through an adjtment perd when they fd out their child is gay, but there is support for parents of gay children. * mom of gay son *

In 1974, when “The Pat Colls Show” aired a segment on parents of gay children, the host troduced by sayg, “Even if he mted murr, I gus you’d say, ‘Well, he’s still my child, no matter what.

”You uld f most of the solar system to the chasm between how the average Amerin of the era would have reacted that hypothetil suatn and how Jeanne Manford rpond upon learng that Morty was gay.

Later, after he went to llege at Columbia and me to terms wh beg gay, the steady, unfsy love of his fay seemed tepid pared wh his own creasg radilism. The first time he attend a gay-rights prott, he wore sunglass and turned away om the news meras, but he soon beme, his sister Suzanne (now Suzanne Manford Swan) told me, “unaaid and unstoppable.

WALL STREET CEOS OPEN UP ABOUT THEIR GAY SONS

A GAY AND HIS MOM IS A WEEKLY INTERACTION BETWEEN A MOTHER AND HER SON. YOU CAN EXPECT INTERESTING CONVERSATIONS, UNFILTERED OBSERVATIONS, JUICY INTERACTIONS, AND A TIP OR TWO. *EDUCATIONAL, UNFILTERED AND FABULOUS**NEW EPISODES EVERY WEEK*DON'T BE SHY - DM US ANYTIME * mom of gay son *

” An eighteen-year-old regular at the Stonewall Inn, Morty was there when a fight broke out between patrons and the police the summer of 1969, an event that talyzed the gay-rights movement. The followg year, after jog the brand-new Gay Activists Alliance, he began anizg polil monstratns, then dropped out of llege to do so full time. Not long after, he was arrted for refg to move when police tried to shoo him off a stoop on Christopher Street, the heart of the Greenwich Village gay scene.

The next time Morty wound up jail, Jeanne was woken up by an early-morng phone ll—not om him but om the arrtg officer, who, apparently expectg to Morty’s life, ma a show of askg Jeanne if she knew that her son was “a homosexual. In the sprg of 1972, the New York Daily News ran an edorial, headled “Any Old Jobs for Homos?, ” that referred to “fairi, nanc, swish, fags, lezz” and mend the Supreme Court for cidg that a public universy uld rcd a job offer to a man who applied for a marriage license wh his male partner. ) That edorial cid wh the annual Inner Circle dner, a parody show hosted by New York Cy journalists, which that year was slated to clu a mockg sk about a gay-rights bill.

MOMMI DEART: MOTHERS AND GAY SONS ON FILM

It is nsired psychologilly healthy for lbians and gay men to e out and live outsi of the closet. However, parents tend to react wh shock, disappotment, and shame when they learn of a son's or dghter's gay sexual orientatn. Disclosure often precipat a paful fay crisis, w … * mom of gay son *

“You would meet Jeanne Manford and you would never a ln years gus what she had her, ” Eric Marc, the thor of the 1992 book “Makg Gay History” and now the host of a podst by the same name, told me. Then she went on to exprs a sentiment never before aired a mastream publitn: “I am proud of my son, Morty Manford, and the hard work he has been dog urgg homosexuals to accept their feelgs. Only the New York Post— s last wang days as a liberal paper, before s purchase, a few years later, by Rupert Murdoch—agreed to publish letter ma Morty realize, fally, that his mother was not jt toleratg her gay son.

PARENTS OF GAY CHILDREN AND THE ISSU THEY FACE

* mom of gay son *

There was no pot gog if no one knew why she was there; she wanted to rry a first meetg of Parents of Gays was held nearly a year later, on March 11, 1973.

To reach parents directly, the Manfords placed an ad the Village Voice; to reach them directly, through their children, Morty and the lbian activist Barbara Love scend on New York Cy’s gay hangouts wh fifteen hundred signs and leaflets, handma and posssg somethg of the timate, supplint look of lost-pet posters.

At the vatn of the Reverend Edward Egan, who was later forced to retirement bee he was gay, the meetg was held at the Metropolan-Duane Uned Methodist Church, the Wt Village. In addn to Jeanne and Jul, Morty and Love were prent to answer qutns that the parents attendance might not be fortable askg their own dghters and the time, most parents of gay or lbian children were a supremely difficult posn. They were full of qutns, many of them ignorant but all of them scere: about whether their gay son would get more effemate every year; about how their “betiful blon dghter, jt neteen” uld possibly be a lbian.

10 TIPS FOR PARENTS OF GAY KIDS

“As parents of gay persons, ” some of the anizatn’s earlit rmatnal material read, “we have learned to regnize our children’s exprsn of love as hont and moral. People sent letters addrsed to “the misguid Parents of Gays” and quoted Scripture to prove that the “gradg, repulsive feelgs are wrong and agast nature.

When the prcipal of the elementary school where she worked told her that people were startg to talk and asked her to be more discreet, Jeanne rmed the woman that her profsnal life was one thg and her private life was another and that she would do as she, though, the people who reached out to the Manfords and to Parents of Gays were lookg for help or muny or a balm for heartbreakg pa.

LBIANS, GAY MEN, AND THEIR PARENTS: FAY THERAPY FOR THE G-OUT CRISIS

” And yet, as word spread about Parents of Gays and the Manfords started to get vatns to appear on televisn and rad, she almost always said y.

That was not bee she craved the attentn—“There was nothg pretent about her, nothg fortune-seekg, no love of the spotlight, ” her granddghter Avril told me—but bee she was one of the few people willg to speak out public on behalf of their gay this time, Jul was one of those people, too. All around the untry, kids were gettg thrown out of their ho when they me out; meanwhile, Jeanne and Jul were welg Morty and his iends, and the Manford hoehold had bee somethg of a home for wayward gays. His sixteen-year-old son had jt e out, and his wife, Elae, uld hardly image anythg worse, so Bob told her about Parents of Gays and suggted that they attend a meetg.

”) Another early member, Sarah Montgomery, was a generatn olr than Jeanne—she had been born the neteenth century—but had likewise never faltered her love for her gay son. ”In California, a uple named Ale and Larry Starr me home one day to a note om their son Philip that said, “I’ve left home bee I am a homosexual. From the begng, one of the goals of Parents of Gays was to persua more and more of those people not jt to make peace wh their queer fay members but to make mon e wh worked.

FOR A MOM, LEARNG TO ACCEPT A GAY SON WAS 'NONNEGOTIABLE'

Many early members beme evangelists for the anizatn, spirg siar groups around the untry, and 1979, durg the first Natnal March on Washgton for Lbian and Gay Rights, reprentativ om twenty-five of those groups met to talk about formg a natnal body. They were planng to ll Parents of Lbians and Gays until one participant raised an objectn: if she attend a group by that name, she would effectively out her closeted dghter. And then, once aga, tragedy found the Manford the sprg and summer of 1981, gay men started showg up tensive-re uns New York and San Francis wh a strange form of pnmonia and a rare type of ncer known as Kaposi’s sara.

MOM WHO INIALLY STGGLED TO ACCEPT HER GAY SON NOW STANDS IN AT SAME-SEX WEDDGS

On the strength of a handful of hard-won legal and cultural victori, the gay muny had jt barely begun to believe that the future would be better; stead, got sudnly, existentially worse. Before the velopment of effective antiretrovirals, AIDS was almost always fatal, and urban areas wh high ncentratns of gay men the sle of ath was overwhelmg. It was the era of Phyllis Schlafly, the era of Jerry Falwell; there was no shortage of people willg to characterize AIDS as God’s retributn for the s of beg gay.

“I’ve been to AIDS funerals where they got up and nmned the body that was the ff, ” Perry many parents, though, AIDS tght them a ccial lson the harst possible way: the time to love your gay children, like all your children, is immediately and always. This was found to be te for many of the mothers and sons I terviewed for the study scribed the book: Comg Out, Comg Home: Helpg Fai Adjt to a Gay or Lbian Child ().

Neverthels, this closens uld have a downsi, at least temporarily, as many mothers ially blame themselv and the close relatnships for their sons' homosexualy. So, perhaps is not pletely surprisg that once they learned their sons were gay, some of the mothers I terviewed felt that they had done somethg to damage them.

DEAR PARENT OF A GAY CHILD

Even though rearch sce the 1950's has bunked , this theory persists people's mds and rears s ugly head for mothers when they ially learn their sons are gay. Fortunately, for many mothers of gay son—wh time and tn, they learn that the ia that they had somehow ma their son gay is ad wrong This was te of the mothers my study who also me to see the benefs havg a gay son as will be scribed later this post. My rearch, clil and personal experienc suggt that there is ed a al lk between male homosexualy and a close maternal relatnship but flows the oppose directn than what was prevly thought.

‘TRMATIZED’ DGHTER OF LGBT PARENTS: ‘MY GAY MOMS OPPRSED ME’

I thk personally [beg gay] ma me a more emotnal person, more sensive, more touch wh both the male and female sis of myself, but allowg me to even acknowledge that other si ma me closer to my mother. Once mothers this study got over their feelgs of guilt and got ed to the ia that their sons were gay, they were able to regnize the benefs of havg a gay son. However, we get to hot water when we allow stereotyp to get the way of unrstandg the uniquens of dividuals and their circumstanc—so is important to remember that not all mothers and gay sons are close.

Sadly, some mothers simply nnot adjt to their sons' homosexualy, due to their guilt, relig ncerns, or abily to "let go" and accept the ways they live their liv.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* MOM OF GAY SON

How One Mother’s Love for Her Gay Son Started a Revolutn | The New Yorker .

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