AGONY AUNT: “YOU TRY BEING GAY”

An American newspaper advice columnist has been applauded for putting the homophobic mother of a gay son in her place.

The woman wrote to Washington Post columnist Amy Dickinson asking for help in dealing with her gay teen.

The mother revealed that she is concerned that her church group will mock her for having a 17-year-old homosexual for a son.

“He won’t listen to reason, and he will not stop being gay. I feel as if he is doing this just to get back at me for forgetting his birthday for the past three years — I have a busy work schedule,” the woman wrote.

She asked “Dear Amy” to “please help him make the right choice in life by not being gay”.

Dickinson replied sarcastically: “You could teach your son an important lesson by changing your own sexuality to show him how easy it is.

“Try it for the next year or so: Stop being a heterosexual to demonstrate to your son that a person’s sexuality is a matter of choice — to be dictated by one’s parents, the parents’ church and social pressure,” wrote Dickinson.

“I assume that my suggestion will evoke a reaction that your sexuality is at the core of who you are. The same is true for your son. He has a right to be accepted by his parents for being exactly who he is.”

She went on to say: “Pressuring your son to change his sexuality is wrong. If you cannot learn to accept him as he is, it might be safest for him to live elsewhere.”

Read the full letter from the “betrayed” mother and Dickinson’s scathing response, which has been celebrated around the world, here.