HomoQuotable - Dan Savage

"Boys are 'made homosexual,' [Pat] Robertson says, 'because of a coach or a guidance counselor or some other male figure... abused them.' As a thought experiment let's concede the point: homosexuals are made, not born (with the exception of the few of us with 'biological problems'). Who do you suppose is making homosexuals out of kids from fundamentalist Christian homes? Alen Keyes has a gay kid, Randal Terry has a gay kid, Dick Cheney has a gay kid, Phyllis Schafley has a gay kid. Seattle's Capitol Hill is crawling with gay teenagers and young adults who grew up in—and escaped from—their fundamentalist Christian homes. The documentary For the Bible Tells Me So profiles numerous kids from fundamentalist Christian families who grew up to be gay.

"Who's raping all these Christian kids? Not openly gay people. Fundamentalist Christian parents don't allow their children hang out with openly gay men and women. Openly gay men do not get hired to work as a guidance counselors at fundamentalist Christian middle schools; out lesbians do not get hired to work as coaches at a fundamentalist Christian high schools; openly bi graduate students don't get to serve as dorm captains at fundamentalist Christian colleges. So it isn't out gay men and women—openly gay coaches and counselors and youth pastors—who are raping all these Christian kids and leaving them "confused" about their sexualities. Most fundamentalist Christian kids have never met an out gay or lesbian person. Which can only mean...

"All these Christian kids are being raped by straight-identified, nominally-Christian coaches and counselors and youth pastors and dorm captains." - Dan Savage, responding to yesterday's outrageous claim by Pat Robertson. Savage concludes: "Christian America: a bad place to raise your kids." Read the entire piece.