Gay dad has a forceful response to a 7-year-old who called gay people ‘the devil’

Robbie Pierce and her husband Neal Broverman are no strangers to them. bigotry. The men and their two young children were traveling on an Amtrak train in California in 2022 when they were harassed by a fellow passenger at a stop in San Jose; An event that made headlines.

“All of a sudden a man appeared next to me,” Pierce said. Lawyer. Pierce says the man told his sons: “Remember what I told you before. They stole you and they are pedophiles.” The man also said this homosexuals are disgusting creatures. (Broverman is editor-in-chief of print media at Pride, The Advocate’s parent company.)

The police were called and the man was thrown off the train, but the incident was a frightening reminder that gay families can be targets of bigots anytime and anywhere, even in liberal countries. Northern California. “There’s a new level of homophobia out there,” Pierce added.

Seven months later, Pierce’s son was the victim of harassment, this time by a child in the park.

“A 7-year-old boy who randomly happened upon it in the park told me and my son that gays are evil,” he recounted in a viral X thread. “My son scoffed, but the boy said it was true because God said so.”

Maybe it was an incident that happened months ago. Maybe it was a lifetime of abuse and judgment. But no matter what, Pierce was bored at that moment. He reacted to the boy’s hatred, which he probably learned at home, with a lesson of his own.

“I told him that parents make up God to make their Children do what they want. His eyes got so big,” he wrote to X.

It’s worth wondering: Did God really ‘say that’? Biblical scholars are divided on the Bible’s true message about homosexuality. It seems open to interpretationand it is clear that many people choose to interpret these words in a hateful and negative way, going so far as to show their children that it is okay to approach and confront gay people based on their identity.

Dealing with complex topics like religion and sexuality with a young child who is a stranger is a challenge, so Pierce admits he had some reservations about his response. But he stands by his decision.

He wrote to X: “I’m sorry, but if you teach your children to hate, I will teach them not to obey you.”

As someone who has been harassed by religious, homophobic people in the past, Pierce jumped at the opportunity to help steer a young child away from hate. By age 7, most children believe everything their parents tell them. But Pierce planted a seed in the boy’s mind that might one day encourage him to challenge his brainwashing when he grows up. The child will likely remember this interaction for many years to come and one day look back with shame. This shame can be the much-needed catalyst for change.

“I was shocked at first and then… well… you may have planted a seed to raise a good person from the petty homophobic bigot he was raised to be. Can’t argue with that,” one user wrote to X.

The vast majority of X’s commenters agreed with Pierce’s response to the boy’s comment.

However, some people thought Pierce’s reaction to the child was inappropriate.

Bigoted words or not, he was still a kid, and many thought there might be a smarter way to teach the kid a lesson than invalidating his entire faith. Or maybe Pierce could track down the boy’s parents and give them information. them an earplug instead.

One thing is clear: The more we become determined to police people’s responses to bigotry and hate and address the root cause of these divisions, the more something is definitely breaking down in our culture. The boy’s parents should be the ones on trial in the court of public opinion for teaching their son that such behavior is acceptable.

Whatever one thinks of Pierce’s reaction, there’s clearly something deeply inappropriate about a 7-year-old openly harassing LGBTQ families. The unfortunate problem is that this type of overly religious upbringing can cause lasting emotional and psychological trauma in the child. And this is a common problem. A recent study in the growing field of religious trauma found that: 1 in 3 Americans suffer from religion-related trauma at some point in their lives.

While we may be quick to dismiss the child’s behavior as innocent or simply a symptom of growing up in a religious family, the more we learn about religious trauma, the more these children seem to be children. victims of abuse. We hope Pierce’s words will help the child rethink his relationship with his faith and his parents in the future.

This article first appeared two years ago. Updated.

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