Oral Roberts' gay grandson to discuss experience of coming out

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=18&articleid=20110716_18_A15_CUTLIN436107

Oral Roberts' gay grandson Randy Roberts Potts says he has been shocked on occasion by how his family has treated him, but that has just inspired him to help other young gay people deal with their own issues of sexuality and religion.

Potts will talk about growing up gay in an evangelical world Sunday at All Souls Unitarian Church. It is the first time he has told his story publicly in Tulsa.

Potts was born in Tulsa, spent his first nine years in Colorado, and then lived in the Roberts family compound just north of Oral Roberts University until he graduated in 1992 from Jenks High School, where he was a junior varsity football player and a class president.

snip

Randy Potts said he has begun to speak and write about his life and gay issues.

"I've come into contact with a lot of young gay men and women out there who have heard the message from preachers that gay people are going to hell," he said, "and I want to counteract that message and give those kids hope so that they don't commit suicide or turn to drugs."

[PDJane]

1. Attractive and Intelligent Young Man........

And I hope he makes his own way to joy.

[jwirr]

2. A man with a great deal of courage. Coming out in that family must

have been a near nightmare.

[Kennah]

3. Coming out as a Jew in the early '40s in Germany would be worse, but that's about it.

[jwirr]

4. Agreed.

[Divine Discontent]

5. great story. his honesty makes them look horribly cruel and deceitful with the actions they took to

keep him out of family seating at funerals. First comment at paper said, "would anyone care if this guy wasn't the grandson of Roberts" - I thought, DUH! That's the whole point. It's great he's visible and doesn't let it keep him down.

[Zorra]

6. All the most common lies told by GLBT hating RW fundies are here:

From the OP:

"We're not homophobic. We have no ill feelings toward homosexual persons. We have no ill feelings toward Randy at all," she said. "We love him. We'll always love him."

..."children have the power to choose how they're going to live their lives," Potts said. "We'll never stop praying for him. We'll never stop believing in him.

"....We do believe what the Bible says."

..."No one set out to ostracize him. He could have called us. Our doors are always open."

And, I do declare, bless Roberta's poor lil' ol' heart, she was so focused that she forgot to make sure Randy had a seat at the funeral.
:puke:

That said, this is a great story. Counteracting the bigotry of RW fundies is important.

I had a bad experience with some bigoted Mormon acquaintances yesterday. I have a extremely thick skin, but this experience is still bothering me some.

[SacredCow]

7. I so rarely respond to anything on DU anymore....

But had to chime in on this.

My partner and I were on the February 2011 RSVP (all gay) Caribbean cruise, and Randy Roberts Potts was a featured lecturer. Having grown up amongst a lot of fundamentalists, I was interested enough to attend and I'm very glad that I did. He doesn't profess to be a very experienced public speaker, but his story (including the letter he wrote to his gay uncle Ronnie after he committed suicide over being gay) is unbelievably moving... I highly recommend that anybody in the area attend this- you won't be sorry.

[closeupready]

8. Nice story. Kicked.

nt

[joeybee12]

9. Good for him...I can only imagine how difficult it would be given his background...knr