By María José Morán
“I believe that gays can go to heaven.” A very bold statement I made to my parents that inevitably started a discussion.
I have never been the kind to hide my opinions. I have also never been the kind to sit on my hands when I feel strongly about something. My beliefs are important to me.
I knew this statement would start a discussion with my parents in which we would be able to exchange viewpoints. This was definitely the case.
By the end of the conversation, we were able to reach some middle ground: Homosexuals can go to heaven if they are not engaging in a sexual lifestyle. The reason we came to this conclusion was based on some very brief research that we did on what the Bible had to say about this topic.
I was actually surprised by how easy it was for me and my parents to agree on this topic. This is not to say that my parents or I look down on this topic or people dealing with this issue. Simply, I thought that our different perspectives based on the different times that we grew up in would be stronger and harder for each other to understand.
I guess this really short discussion with my parents taught me two main things that are valuable to me today. One, it is important and almost crucial for families to have real conversations about difficult topics such as sexuality and the LGBTQ community. Whatever reaction or opinion you think they might have, might be proven wrong.
The second thing that I learned is that generations are not necessarily as different as we think in every issue. Sure, there are some significant viewpoint differences that are worth noting, however, not everything needs to be or is an argument. Maybe if we spent some more time looking for common ground and exploring our similarities it would be easier to progress on different issues.