One of the hardest things for many parents to hear are the words, "Mom, Dad...I'm gay." Some parents, especially very religious parents, find themselves turning away from their child, believing somehow that God does the same. A man I know tells this story:
"At a meeting of gay university students, a former student of mine recognized my wife and me.

For many children going to school can be a challenging experience. Fear and insecurity can often cause great kids to act in less than positive and constructive ways. It has been estimated that 160,000 children miss school every day out of fear of being harassed or attacked by another student. Bullying, targeted viciousness, and violence in our schools have become a national concern.

Gary is a big kid, a gentle soft spoken giant, who towers over his 9th grade contemporaries. He used to die his long hair various colors: sometimes red, sometimes jet black. Now he's cut it all off and is growing sideburns.

Some months ago, while on my afternoon school bus route home with middle school and high school students on board, I noticed Gary being harassed in the center of the bus by both middle and high school boys.

Stories in the news--such as Ted Haggart's, his fall from grace and subsequent redemption through Christian therapy that made him "100% heterosexual," make us ask, "What causes homosexuality anyway, and can it be changed?" For helpful insight into this question, I thank Carol Lynn Pearson, author of the new book, "No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons Around Our Gay Loved Ones.

At this writing, 50 young "Equality Riders" from Soulforce are traveling on two buses headed for 32 Christian colleges with policies that silence or exclude lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. Their mission is to "open a dialogue about the painful consequences of discrimination and the religion-based prejudice that sustains it."

The first stop was at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, where "sexual activity with someone of the same gender" is possible grounds for "an employee's discharge or a student's dismissal.

The nagging issues of my life have been (1) do I have the capacity for something grander, and (2) can I really accept my own strange uniqueness. It took a psychologist to help answer those questions. It didn't come through psychotherapy but through adopting, as a mentor, one of America's most esteemed psychologists, Abraham Maslow.

I never met Dr.