Samuel Brinton's Father Is A Gay Basher....Of His Own Son

And people wonder why some gay men and women stay closeted.

For Samuel Brinton, a student at Kansas State University and the son of a Southern Baptist missionary father, coming out didn't bring acceptance, understanding, or even love. Coming out meant that Samuel Brinton would be beaten, burned, and shocked with electric currents.

Samuel Brinton and his family were living on a missionary base in Iowa, and he was just twelve, when he realized he was gay. And he thought nothing of telling his father that he felt more strongly about his male best friend than models in Playboy magazine. His father responded by knocking him out so brutally, that he needed hospital treatment.

Samuel, interviewed as part of a project by a group called I’m From Driftwood, described how his God-loving father told Samuel that he was the only gay person left in America, and that the government would find him and kill him. His father then beat him so badly, and so often, that he was hospitalized six times, though doctors were told that he had fallen down the stairs.

Samuel was also burned as a way to associate male intimacy with pain, or he was forced to hold ice cubes while looking at pictures of men embracing. The worst came during what Samuel called his “month of hell” when his father shoved needles into his fingers and administered electric shocks while he watched gay porn. As is the case with so many others, who have been bullied by classmates, teachers and strangers, suffering such abuse at the hands of his father almost drove Samuel to suicide.

But it wasn't just his father who abused Samuel Brinton; his mother's emotional abuse consisted of her telling her won son that she would love him again if he became straight. Samuel then decided, to avoid the pain and abuse, to pretend to be straight so his own family would accept him.

It wasn't until Samuel Brinton was leaving for college that he told his parents the truth. His father listened silently, and then told Samuel that he would be killed if he ever returned. And yet, even with all that he's endured, physically, mentally, emotionally, Samuel Brinton says, “I’ve tried to call them multiple times....I try to keep calling. I want contact...[but]....the last time [my dad told me] he would shoot me if I ever tried to walk in the door again.”

In fact, Samuel Brinton  still says he would give his parents “the chance” to accept him in future. Strange how he can accept being beaten and humiliated at his parents hands and still want them in his life, while they forget he ever existed because he's gay.

We wonder why so many gay men and women stay closeted. It just might save their lives, and that's the scariest thing of all.

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