Prayers for Bobby

01/29/2009

*warning! Spoiler alert! If you haven't seen "Prayers for Bobby" and plan to, I suggest you don't read what I say below because of spoilers.*


Today I watched Prayers for Bobby. It aired last night on Lifetime channel but I couldn't watch it because it started at 9 PM and wouldn't finish until 11 PM. I get up way too early in the morning so I decided to record it on DVR and watch it today.

The movie is about a very strong Christian, conservative mom/wife and her gay son. This story was very touching for me because I could identify with Bobby, the gay son. It absolutely broke my heart. I'm so thankful that my parents didn't react to me coming out like Bobby's mom did. Honestly, I probably would have ended up like Bobby. Around the middle of the movie or in the last half of the movie, he committed suicide. When I was in high school I was almost suicidal. I was struggling with my sexual orientation. I almost dropped out my senior year in high school. I was miserable and I was carrying around this huge secret. The difference between Bobby and me: He came out early on and faced opposition. I came out just last year to my parents and they were accepting.

During the movie, they showed quotes from his journal. These quotes were like a smack in my face. I felt exactly the same way as he did.

I'm really happy that they made the movie. While the ending was really tragic, how Bobby lost his life at only 20 years of age, hopefully this movie will open some people's eyes. Maybe some parents who weren't accepting before will start to accept after seeing this movie.

There was religion included in it. The mom kept bringing up some bible verse about how homosexuality is an abomination. One priest for a church that accepts gays explained that the bible had many interpretations and that it shouldn't be followed literally. For example somewhere it says in there that if a child disobeys its parents, it must be killed. Now, we don't do that. But we discriminate against gays. Why? Because they are different?

I cried during this movie. If you haven't seen it but read this anyway, I strongly recommend you watch it. I hope it inspires other people like it inspired me.