I know I’ve been posting a lot today. I know

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This article has been open in my browser all day and I don’t know quite what to say about it. So I’m just going to talk.

Here’s the short version: Fundamentalist Christian minister blames a tornado on gays and months later is outed as gay himself.

I know what you’re thinking: “Harry, around here we call that ‘Tuesday.’ What’s the big deal?”

Here’s the thing: The guy wasn’t caught traveling through Europe with a rentboy.com guy, he wasn’t arrested with a gay sex worker, he wasn’t involved in a long-term relationship with another dude. He was in a 12-step group therapy program to deal with his sexuality, and the writer who outed him attended the therapy sessions under false pretenses.

Not that I have much faith in the “therapy” he’s undergoing. Using an addiction protocol [1] to manage your sexual desires? That makes me suck air through clenched teeth. It sure seems to me that it’s the wrong way to go. I wish the reverend could find a therapy that would help him make peace with who he is, not try to suppress it.

But that’s not really my call. He has to pursue the path that he thinks is best. And those private moments when he is in a supposedly-anonymous group, trying to work out his issues… well, they should have remained private.

Easy for me to say, right? I’m not gay and haven’t been villified the way gays have. I haven’t been blamed for everything from Katrina to 9/11 to pedophilia. I haven’t had to endure that bullshit. I recognize that the reverend’s words are hate speech and the people who outed him consider him an enemy.

I just wish they could have given him the space to work out his private demons in peace. I also wish he could have the public space to stand in front of his congregation and say: “I believe gay sex is a sin, and I believe in loving the sinner but hating the sin. But I know how difficult it is, because I struggle with these feelings myself.”

I don’t know. I don’t have any simple answer here. I just don’t like the whole situation.