[ WP ] Make me hate your parents

`` We do love you, son,'' my dad said. `` We just do n't like that you're gay. No one likes a person all of the time.'' 
 
 `` But that does n't make sense!'' I cried. `` You're supposed to love me no matter what!'' 
 
 `` And we do,'' my mother soothed. `` Why ca n't you see that?'' 
 
 `` Because all you try to do is make me straight! And I ca n't do that!'' I curled my knees into my chest and hugged them tightly. The tears would n't stop flowing down my cheeks. It always hurt when they talked to me like this. I should have kept my mouth shut. I should n't have told them I was gay. 
 
 `` But we know... four?'' my mom looked to my dad. 
 
 `` No, five.'' 
 
 `` That's right. Five gay men who changed and now are happily married to a wife and have wonderful kids.'' 
 
 `` But I ca n't do that! I ca n't love a woman!'' I shouted. 
 
 `` That's what they all thought, too. What do you think makes them different from you?'' My dad asked. I could n't think of an answer. My mind was reeling from the amount of pain they were putting on me. 
 
 `` They found God's truth, son,'' my mom said. `` They looked to Him for guidance and He brought them out of their sin. And you can do the same. We know you do n't think it's a sin, but the Bible is explicit about this.'' I could n't do anything but cry. A twenty-year-old being lectured by his parents was crying. How pathetic is that? 
 
 `` You've dealt with a lot of pain since you came out,'' my dad said. `` Maybe it's God's way of telling you this is n't right.'' I wanted so bad to scream at them. To tell them that the pain I've been through was only from them and their homophobic thoughts. But I could only cry and sputter. It was too much for me. 
 
 Neither of them reached out to comfort me. I was alone in my own family. The family that was supposed to make me feel safe made me feel paranoid. I always wondered if they were planning something to make me straight. If they had talked to someone about my `` issue'' and how to fix me. I knew there was nothing to fix. There was no `` issue.'' But knowing the two people who had cared for me for so long were against me was too much. 
 
 `` We love you. Just in ways you ca n't understand sometimes,'' my dad said. `` We're much older than you, so can you at least try to understand that we can be wiser than you? We have more life experience.'' 
 
 `` That's right,'' my mother added. `` So trust us, okay?'' she said with a smile. The smile was real all right, but they did n't understand how much their `` help'' hurt me. How their religion made me feel worthless and broken. How badly I wanted to die. I slowly uncurled from my ball. 
 
 `` I need to be alone right now...'' I said softly. But I knew that even if they were n't in the room, their words and actions would still haunt me, becoming demons in my mind to torture me and make me feel less than what I should. I knew that no matter how many tears I shed, they would never understand that they made me feel so helpless and hopeless. They would never understand how they had pushed me so far away.
