feature: “i lived it: from homophobe to father of a gay son” via ozy

Bay Area-based father Anthony Hamilton shared the story of how he came to accept his gay son on ozy.com. This is a very powerful testimony.
Excerpts: “I couldn’t help but remember my own early days, before I’d accepted my son. I too must have sounded undeniably stupid, not knowing that each word I spoke on the subject was empty, thoughtless.” (…) “I was standing in the airport near the gate waiting for my son. As soon as he appeared, I could see: His walk was different, so too his mannerisms, for they were now much more in-tune with the life he had come to know. Minutes before, when I was leaving my home to pick him up, I was one of the most homophobic men I knew. But within seconds, I transformed from a shallow, emotionally impotent human being to a father of a gay son.” (…)
“With each step he took toward me, a piece of the callousness that had built up over the years against such a life seemed to somehow dissipate. It was as if God knew that everything I had said over time were just words. And a heart that was once full of dislike toward people I knew nothing of was being dismantled by a simple smile. That is fatherhood.”
“Our children may never be who we thought they would be. But we can be, as parents, more than we thought we could be. Somewhere out there, there are children who are afraid to speak, who are lost in the midst of their sorrows; drifting in the midst of their possibilities, starving for affection; swimming, hoping feverishly for a connection in a sea filled with tides of imperfection.”
Read the full story here.