I do not hesitate to be graphic when necessary in memory of Shawn Sheffield, a child whose biological mother was among those who were early indicators of where this disease is going. He was embraced in foster care by two loving women who cared for him until he succumbed at nearly five years of age. I regret to say that I do not know what became of his mother. This is a reality for which plain talk and quick action are the name of the game. Now that some young men are returning to unsafe sexual practices, the truth needs to be spoken even louder.
Many religious people are too genteel and too ethereal to discuss such earthy matters.
Some prefer to speak loftily about celibacy and chastity, about fidelity and abnormality, while our children die. As a result, some people died unnecessarily young. I call that sin. But what haunts me most deeply is the deadly refusal of so many religious people to put aside their personal discomfort about homosexuality in order to learn what the social and biological sciences now teach about sex. But we know a lot about the high cost of homo-hatred and discrimination, the deep rage that causes the death of a Matthew Shepard or that takes children from their biological mother because she is lesbian.