A Gay Christian
Hello, my name is Albert Ray D'Orazio and I am a 24 year old half Mexican and Italian gay male. I am glad to share my story and to fight discrimination and bigotry wherever it stands.
Wow, where to start? Let's start off by saying that ever since my sexual stirrings (at 7yrs old) I knew I was different. I was attracted to boys. I thought nothing of it; it was just natural to me. I did not completely understand sexuality at age 7 but I knew that it was supposed to be a boy and a girl. So I was kind of confused until I grew older. I was brought up a Catholic and I was taught that being gay was a "sin". My Mom was o.k. with gays and lesbians and was friends with a few but as long as her children weren't one of those "sinners" then she was fine. At the age of 12 my family and I converted to Christianity. That further permeated my Mom's belief that LGBTs are "sinners". But the older I grew, my attractiveness towards other males was evident.
So all throughout high school I put a fake facade on and pretended to be straight. I tried to be straight: I dated girls; I would get prayed on at church; and I would tell myself that I was going through a phase and it'll pass. But none worked and I knew that I was born gay. My Mom was relentless in trying to tell me that I was going to go to hell if I "choose to be gay". Finally, at the age of 20, one of my cousins outed me and told everyone I was gay; she found out on my MySpace. My mother was very upset with me and said, "Do you realize what you did to my reputation?! Our family knows I preach to them and I am Christian so why are you doing this to me? That's an 'evil spirit of homosexuality'." I told her, "Mom, we all know I am gay. I always have been and I always will be. I am tired of wearing a fake mask of who I am not. I am through with wearing a fake facade and I ain't going to do it anymore." My mother has come a long way to partly accept me as I am. She still struggles with it to this day. But I am educating her and she is learning but still needs to be open.
I have lost friends because I came out of the closet; I have been called a "faggot", "queer", "fairy", "pervert" and "sinner"; I have been spat at and called names at last year's Prop 8 protest. Even through all this, I would give the shirt off my back to my condemners if they needed it. Why? Because I am not like them. I am not judgmental and I am not a bigot. I also believe in that saying. "What goes around, comes around." and I feel sorry for those people because they will have to answer to God for their hurtful slander against innocent human beings for being themselves.
I cannot help who I am. I don't know why God made me gay, but it was His will. I have an idea though; God made me gay so I can preach to everyone that being gay and christian is just fine. I believe that to be true deep in my heart. God created diversity, so to say that God did not create LGBT people that way is just ignorance. If God wanted everyone to be the same, then everyone would be the same. I love Jesus with all of my heart and no one can take that away from me. I have also researched the alleged Bible verses that bash God's LGBT children and came to the powerful facts and conclusion that the Bible, not even God and Jesus bashes LGBT people. People jump to their own selfish thoughts and beliefs to condemn God's innocent LGBT people when none of it is true and are missing what the true message is.