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Gay pastor shares his parenting experiences
By Leslie Boyd, (Citizen –Times.com 26/1/2008)
Brett Webb-Mitchell’s children often are met with an “Oh-h-h,” when they tell people who their father is.
“People say, ‘Oh-h-h, the gay man,’” Webb-Mitchell said. “My son isn’t just Parker, he’s Parker, whose father is gay.”
Gay parents face most of the same issues as straight parents, said Webb-Mitchell, an ordained Presbyterian minister, but the “oh-h-h” factor can make things harder on a child.
Webb-Mitchell’s new book, “On Being a Gay Parent: Making a Future Together,” is published by Church Publishing and deals with parenting issues and with religion.
“I wrote the book because there was nothing out there that was pro-gay, pro-child, pro-family and pro-Christian,” he said. “The books that dealt with gay parenting and Christianity were not very pro-Christian. If anything, they steered people toward the United Church of Christ and away from Catholic and Evangelical churches.”
The United Church of Christ is the only mainstream Protestant denomination that has come out in favor of same-sex marriage.
Webb-Mitchell came out as a gay man 12 years ago, when Parker was 4 and his daughter, Adrianne, was 10.
And even though he no longer was married to his children’s mother, he was still their parent. He did his best to help them understand that being gay is just another way of being.
“We watched ‘In & Out’ and ‘Will and Grace’ and parts of ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,’” he said. “I wanted them to see that being gay is how some people are.”
He had struggled with his sexuality all his life.
“It was Psalm 139 that finally convinced me to be who I am,” he said. “You are constructed by God; you are wonderfully made. … I am who God made me.”
Gay pastor shares his parenting experiences
By Leslie Boyd, (Citizen –Times.com 26/1/2008)
Brett Webb-Mitchell’s children often are met with an “Oh-h-h,” when they tell people who their father is.
“People say, ‘Oh-h-h, the gay man,’” Webb-Mitchell said. “My son isn’t just Parker, he’s Parker, whose father is gay.”
Gay parents face most of the same issues as straight parents, said Webb-Mitchell, an ordained Presbyterian minister, but the “oh-h-h” factor can make things harder on a child.
Webb-Mitchell’s new book, “On Being a Gay Parent: Making a Future Together,” is published by Church Publishing and deals with parenting issues and with religion.
“I wrote the book because there was nothing out there that was pro-gay, pro-child, pro-family and pro-Christian,” he said. “The books that dealt with gay parenting and Christianity were not very pro-Christian. If anything, they steered people toward the United Church of Christ and away from Catholic and Evangelical churches.”
The United Church of Christ is the only mainstream Protestant denomination that has come out in favor of same-sex marriage.
Webb-Mitchell came out as a gay man 12 years ago, when Parker was 4 and his daughter, Adrianne, was 10.
And even though he no longer was married to his children’s mother, he was still their parent. He did his best to help them understand that being gay is just another way of being.
“We watched ‘In & Out’ and ‘Will and Grace’ and parts of ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,’” he said. “I wanted them to see that being gay is how some people are.”
He had struggled with his sexuality all his life.
“It was Psalm 139 that finally convinced me to be who I am,” he said. “You are constructed by God; you are wonderfully made. … I am who God made me.”
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