This agony aunt had the perfect response to a mother’s homophobic letter about her gay son

An agony aunt’s 2013 response to a homophobic letter, originally published in the Chicago Tribune newspaper, has gone viral after it was rediscovered and posted on social media.

In the letter written by a teenage boy’s mother, she tells the newspaper’s agony aunt that she’d “discovered” her 17-year-old son was gay and that she was afraid members of her church group would make fun of her for it.

The woman goes on to write: “He won’t listen to reason, and he will not stop being gay. I feel as if he is doing this just to get back at me for forgetting his birthday for the past three years - I have a busy work schedule.”

A photo of the letter and part of the agony aunt’s calm yet devastating response was posted on Reddit’s r/MurderedByWords subreddit - “a place for well-constructed put-downs, comebacks, and counter-arguments” - where users revelled at her perfect comeback.

Reddit/u/vfx_king

Reddit/u/vfx_king

In the post, captioned ‘Just try not being straight for awhile’, the agony aunt sarcastically responds to the woman’s ludicrous claim that her teenager is purposely being gay to get back at her, writing:

“You could teach your son an important lesson by changing your own sexuality to show him how easy it is. Try it for the next year or so: Stop being a heterosexual to demonstrate to your son that a person’s sexuality is a matter of choice - to be dictated by one’s parents, the parents’ church and social pressure.”

The agony aunt goes on to explain that asking the mother to pretend to be someone she is not is the same thing she is asking her son to do:

“I assume that my suggestion will evoke a reaction that your sexuality is at the core of who you are. The same is true for your son. He has a right to be accepted by his parents for being exactly who he is.”

One Redditor wrote in response: “This is actually really nice advice. It gives as direct of an analogy as possible so that if the parent has any chance of empathizing with their child this should work.”

For the sake of her child, let’s hope she followed the advice.