Barbara Joan Streisand? She's like buttah!
Posted on 09/29/2014 9:50:01 AM PDT by wagglebee
Every time a new state redefines marriage, the news is full of happy stories of gay and lesbian couples and their new families. But behind those big smiles and sunny photographs are other, more painful stories. These are left to secret, dark places. They are suppressed, and those who would tell them are silenced in the name of “marriage equality.”
But I refuse to be silent.
I represent one of those real life stories that are kept in the shadows. I have personally felt the pain and devastation wrought by the propaganda that destroys natural families.
The Divorce
In the fall of 2007, my husband of almost ten years told me that he was gay and that he wanted a divorce. In an instant, the world that I had known and loved—the life we had built together—was shattered.
I tried to convince him to stay, to stick it out and fight to save our marriage. But my voice, my desires, my needs—and those of our two young children—no longer mattered to him. We had become disposable, because he had embraced one tiny word that had become his entire identity. Being gay trumped commitment, vows, responsibility, faith, fatherhood, marriage, friendships, and community. All of this was thrown away for the sake of his new identity.
Try as I might to save our marriage, there was no stopping my husband. Our divorce was not settled in mediation or with lawyers. No, it went all the way to trial. My husband wanted primary custody of our children. His entire case can be summed up in one sentence: “I am gay, and I deserve my rights.” It worked: the judge gave him practically everything he wanted. At one point, he even told my husband, “If you had asked for more, I would have given it to you.”
I truly believe that judge was legislating from the bench, disregarding the facts of our particular case and simply using us—using our children— to help influence future cases. In our society, LGBT citizens are seen as marginalized victims who must be protected at all costs, even if it means stripping rights from others. By ignoring the injustice committed against me and my children, the judge seemed to think that he was correcting a larger injustice.
My husband had left us for his gay lover. They make more money than I do. There are two of them and only one of me. Even so, the judge believed that they were the victims. No matter what I said or did, I didn’t have a chance of saving our children from being bounced around like so many pieces of luggage.
A New Same-Sex Family—Built On the Ruins of Mine
My ex-husband and his partner went on to marry. Their first ceremony took place before our state redefined marriage. After it created same-sex marriage, they chose to have a repeat performance. In both cases, my children were forced—against my will and theirs—to participate. At the second ceremony, which included more than twenty couples, local news stations and papers were there to document the first gay weddings officiated in our state. USA Today did a photo journal shoot on my ex and his partner, my children, and even the grandparents. I was not notified that this was taking place, nor was I given a voice to object to our children being used as props to promote same-sex marriage in the media.
At the time of the first ceremony, the marriage was not recognized by our state, our nation, or our church. And my ex-husband’s new marriage, like the majority of male-male relationships, is an “open,” non-exclusive relationship. This sends a clear message to our children: what you feel trumps all laws, promises, and higher authorities. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want—and it doesn’t matter who you hurt along the way.
After our children’s pictures were publicized, a flood of comments and posts appeared. Commenters exclaimed at how beautiful this gay family was and congratulated my ex-husband and his new partner on the family that they “created.” But there is a significant person missing from those pictures: the mother and abandoned wife. That “gay family” could not exist without me.
There is not one gay family that exists in this world that was created naturally.
Every same-sex family can only exist by manipulating nature. Behind the happy façade of many families headed by same-sex couples, we see relationships that are built from brokenness. They represent covenants broken, love abandoned, and responsibilities crushed. They are built on betrayal, lies, and deep wounds.
This is also true of same-sex couples who use assisted reproductive technologies such as surrogacy or sperm donation to have children. Such processes exploit men and women for their reproductive potential, treat children as products to be bought and sold, and purposely deny children a relationship with one or both of their biological parents. Wholeness and balance cannot be found in such families, because something is always missing. I am missing. But I am real, and I represent hundreds upon thousands of spouses who have been betrayed and rejected.
If my husband had chosen to stay, I know that things wouldn’t have been easy. But that is what marriage is about: making a vow and choosing to live it out, day after day. In sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, spouses must choose to put the other person first, loving them even when it’s hard.
A good marriage doesn’t only depend on sexual desire, which can come and go and is often out of our control. It depends on choosing to love, honor, and be faithful to one person, forsaking all others. It is common for spouses to be attracted to other people—usually of the opposite sex, but sometimes of the same sex. Spouses who value their marriage do not act on those impulses. For those who find themselves attracted to people of the same sex, staying faithful to their opposite-sex spouse isn’t a betrayal of their true identity. Rather, it’s a decision not to let themselves be ruled by their passions. It shows depth and strength of character when such people remain true to their vows, consciously striving to remember, honor, and revive the love they had for their spouses when they first married.
My Children Deserve Better
Our two young children were willfully and intentionally thrust into a world of strife and combative beliefs, lifestyles, and values, all in the name of “gay rights.” Their father moved into his new partner’s condo, which is in a complex inhabited by sixteen gay men. One of the men has a 19-year-old male prostitute who comes to service him. Another man, who functions as the father figure of this community, is in his late sixties and has a boyfriend in his twenties. My children are brought to gay parties where they are the only children and where only alcoholic beverages are served. They are taken to transgender baseball games, gay rights fundraisers, and LGBT film festivals.
Both of my children face identity issues, just like other children. Yet there are certain deep and unique problems that they will face as a direct result of my former husband’s actions. My son is now a maturing teen, and he is very interested in girls. But how will he learn how to deal with that interest when he is surrounded by men who seek sexual gratification from other men? How will he learn to treat girls with care and respect when his father has rejected them and devalues them? How will he embrace his developing masculinity without seeing his father live out authentic manhood by treating his wife and family with love, honoring his marriage vows even when it's hard?
My daughter suffers too. She needs a dad who will encourage her to embrace her femininity and beauty, but these qualities are parodied and distorted in her father's world. Her dad wears make-up and sex bondage straps for Halloween. She is often exposed to men dressing as women. The walls in his condo are adorned with large framed pictures of women in provocative positions. What is my little girl to believe about her own femininity and beauty? Her father should be protecting her sexuality. Instead, he is warping it.
Without the guidance of both their mother and their father, how can my children navigate their developing identities and sexuality? I ache to see my children struggle, desperately trying to make sense of their world.
My children and I have suffered great losses because of my former husband’s decision to identify as a gay man and throw away his life with us. Time is revealing the depth of those wounds, but I will not allow them to destroy me and my children. I refuse to lose my faith and hope. I believe so much more passionately in the power of the marriage covenant between one man and one woman today than when I was married. There is another way for those with same-sex attractions. Destruction is not the only option—it cannot be. Our children deserve far better from us.
This type of devastation should never happen to another spouse or child. Please, I plead with you: defend marriage as being between one man and one woman. We must stand for marriage—and for the precious lives that marriage creates.
Janna Darnelle is a mother, writer, and an advocate for upholding marriage between one man and one woman. She mentors others whose families have been impacted by homosexuality.
Reprinted with permission from the Public Discourse.
Barbara Joan Streisand? She's like buttah!
I actually agree with you. But the ex husband in this article doesn't appear to have been cheating on her -- which he could have done -- he simply divorced her. Probably the least-bad thing he could have done.
Your comment “strange world” reminded me of the flood during Noah’s day. I so understand why the LORD flooded the earth and killed all but eight people. To me the odds that out of those eight there were probably some bad things wrong with some of them is overwhelming (excluding Noah-his generations were perfect) of course.
A woman at work asked for advice in a similar situation.
Husband came out as gay, but doesn’t want to get divorced.
The husband’s solution was an open marriage, so he lives with her and the kids to maintain the family (they have children) but he has the freedom to see guys on the side.
She asked for advice.
Most advice she received as “it is so great he feels free to come out today”, or “here is a support group for straight spouses of gay guys”.
My suggestion - treat it as if he had asked for permission to commit adultery as a woman. If you wouldn’t permit him cheating on you with another woman, then get a divorce, and he’s free to pursue his relationships as he’d like. If he wants to maintain his family, he should get counseling to be the faithful husband and father he wants to pretend to be. And if he’s asking for an open relationship, feel free to refuse and demand STD testing because he is risking your health.
I was the only one who suggested divorce / actually staying together as the two main choices.
I was reprimanded at work with an entry in my HR file for using the judgmental term “adultery”. My advice was considered too controversial, derogatory to homosexuals. My statements were inappropriate.
The fact that she was asking for advice was irrelevant, the fact that she was discussing a personal and sexual matter wasn’t inappropriate, but giving advice that would have been a no-brainer 20 years ago was unacceptable.
If I had not been female, and said I was giving the same advice I’d give to any other woman in any other situation with a cheating husband, I probably would have lost my job.
Yep, the pervert part. They don’t end up there because of lack of sexual desire.
Heart wrenching.
“I have personally been closely acquainted with women in similar situations. “
—
I know 2 women who had this happen.
One I worked with years ago—and one who now lives in my neighborhood.
These ladies are doing quite well——kids grown.
.
this recently happened to a couple i know... they have one 3-year old son... but she is the one who left for her lesbian lover... it was shocking! some of her close friends thought she might be having an affair... she seemed different... then it came out that she was leaving him... so we assumed for another man... but no! for a woman... so then we assumed the woman would be some hot mama, as the woman leaving the marriage is really hot... but no--she began posting pics of her and her lover on Facebook... her lover is a female Justin Beiber look alike! shocking!
Whoa...whoa...WHOA! "Fault" is one thing but I,a guy,would think that there'd be "warning signs" for a wife.I mean,it's one thing for a woman to say "I'm too tired" but when the husband says it night after night...
“...may be an offshoot...”
Indeed. Flick the safety OFF and SHOOT the bastard between the horns.
I am dismayed that my fellow FReepers would make what appears to be the assumption that Janna Darnelle knew before marriage that her fiancé was homosexual and thus at least partially at fault!? Is it not possible that she was blind-sided in the revelation by her husband?
As far as the judicial process is stated in this personal recounting, it is one of the grievous faults of the liberal mindset that judicial legislation is a remedy to past (perceived) injustices. What gets lost to these judicial activists is that opinion or perception of correction outside public voting or legislation is FRAUD!
There’s a big effort on (as we all know) to normalize homosexual marriage.
It may very well be that 1) the judge really was, as she claims, trying to mske a larger societal statement by placing the kids with the father, and/or she objected to the kids being exposed to his new lifestyle (she says so in the article) and the judge decided she was an unfit parent.
The truth is that the only thing holding together traditional families is that men and women who honestly want one continue finding honest others who want one as well.
This story can be seen as the natural bookend to how straight husbands are often raped/destroyed in regular hetero-hetero divorces. Which is driving young straight men to abandon marriage. Get enough straight women to come forward with stories like this and young strait women will start following suit.
” Next time, marry a straight guy.”
Stupid,simplistic answer to a complicated problem.
.
Which leads me to suspect that there might be something a little off about the author. Aside from her obviously faulty gay-dar.
she should be reprimanded for even bringing this up at work... plus what did she do? blab to everybody the advice everyone was giving her? i do not feel sorry for your co-worker... she sounds awful... i am sure she is not very productive...
Doen't ring true, but in the absence of any real information I'll withold my opinion.
I am so glad you posted this story. This is a reflection that has rarely been shown. As always, the kids are the pawns and the victims. It strengthens my belief in natural and sanctified marriage. Homosexuality is not a victimless crime.
It's really not all that complicated. Gay men shouldn't marry women.
It tends to make everybody miserable, and it's that much more messy if kids are involved. And yes I am partly blaming women - many women who marry gay men know who they're marrying and do so anyway. The fact that the author of this article isn't mad her ex-husband married her -- but that he left her -- is a telling indicator that she knew what she was signing up for.
Ben Franklin once quipped "Either you will be governed by God or by-god you will be governed."
“I read the small print only because looking at those ladies,all of whom are young enough to be my granddaughter,would give me chest pain.”
Have a look and then pop a nitro. It’ll be worth the headache.
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