Over the Rainbow: My View on Same Sex Marriage Changed.

Over The Rainbow

Just like the majority of my peers in the Midwest, I was raised in a Conservative Christian household. Growing up nestled in the heart of the Bible belt, I was taught that homosexuality was deeply wrong and a sin. I was taught that loving someone of the same sex, was a terrible thing, and although I knew no one who was a homosexual, and was taught that it was wrong, I felt that everyone should be allowed to love whom they wanted too. Then at the age of 18 I made my first gay friend, and knowing him, and meeting more people who were part of the LGBT community, finally strengthened and solidified my belief same sex relationships were not a bad thing .

I was raised in Southeast Missouri, in a Lutheran/Catholic religious combination; my mother was Catholic and my father Lutheran. However I spent much more time at the Lutheran Church, since from the age of 12 on I lived with my father and grandmother. My family had been members of this church for over 100 years. Christianity was part of the fabric of which I was made up of, we prayed at every meal, I was confirmed at the age of 14, and went to church every Sunday. Thinking that homosexuality was wrong was not supposed to be something that I should question, but I did, I always got this odd feeling in the pit of my stomach when I was at church and this subject came up, it simply never set well with me that telling someone that loving who they loved was wrong.

At the age of 18, I got married and moved out of my family’s home and got a job working at the local newspaper. This is where I made my first gay friend, David. He was a little older than me and we hit it off instantly. One day at work he invited me to come out with him and some of his friends at the only gay bar in Cape Girardeau. It was located above a floral shop, and if you did not know that it was there you would not know there was even a bar there. There was no sign for it and the entrance was in the back of the building....