Many people don't accept homosexuality because they feel that if they do accept it, they would be disobeying the rules of the church. Another reason might be because they might have been taught that homosexuality is wrong when they were young. Another reason would be because they might "fear for their child's life/reputation." Now, this may be true in some cases, but sometimes parents just say that because they"ll fear for their own reputations. Parents will say this because they don't want to be criticized by their other family members. Now even though this may be true, sometimes they really ARE protecting their children.
As *Alex* explains in an interview, coming out to the rest of his family was tough:.
"I decided to come out to my parents about a year and a half ago and they were actually OK with it! On the way to a family gathering, my parents told me not to tell anyone in the family about my sexuality, they said it was for my own good. At first I didn't understand why they wanted to keep it a secret, so I decided to announce it to everyone anyways. Everyone was in the patio talking, dancing, and just having a good time. I yelled out to everyone that I had an important announcement to make, when everyone was listening, I said I was gay, just like that. After I made the announcement, everyone just started to give me dirty looks and making rude comments behind my back. After the party, things got worse, some of my own cousins ganged up on me and started to push me around calling me fag, queer, fudge packer, and other such names. After that whole thing, I realized that my parents actually WERE trying to protect me.".
A lot of the time, many gay teens have to gone through life pretending to be straight and having to listen to their parents talk about how they"re going to get married to the opposite gender, have kids, and other things. People say that if gays have a hard coming out, they should go straight, but that's not right.
