Gay dad’s strong response to 7-year-old boy calling gays ‘devils’

Robbie Pearce, her husband, Neil Broverman is no stranger to bigotry. The men and their two young children were traveling on an Amtrak train in California in 2022 when they were molested by a fellow passenger at a stop in San Jose; An incident that made headlines.

“All of a sudden, there was a man standing next to me,” Pierce said Advocate. The man told his son, “Remember what I told you before. They stole you and they were abusing you,” Pierce says. The man also said that gay people are hateful. (Broverman is editorial director for print media at Pride, The Advocate’s parent company.)

Police were called and the man was thrown from the train, but the incident was a chilling reminder that same-sex families can be targets of bigots anytime and anywhere, even in liberal Northern California. “It’s a new level of homophobia out there,” Pearce added.

Seven months later, Pierce’s son was the victim of harassment, this time by a child in the park.

“An unsuspecting 7-year-old at the park told me and my son that gay people are the devil,” he explained in a Viral X thread. “My son scoffed, but the boy said it was true because God said so.”

Maybe this happened months ago. Perhaps it was a lifetime of oppression and judgment. But anyway, Pierce had had enough at that moment. He responded to the boy’s disdain—which he probably learned at home—with a lesson of his own.

“I told him that parents have made their children God to do what they want. His eyes got so big,” he wrote in X.

It is worth pondering: Did God really ‘say so’? Biblical scholars are divided on the true message of the Bible about homosexuality. It seems open to interpretation, and it’s clear that many people choose to interpret the words in a hateful and negative way, to show their children that it’s okay to meet and confront gay people in their identity.

Addressing complex issues like religion and sexuality with an unfamiliar child is a tough needle, so Pearce admits he had some reservations about his response. But he is adamant about his decision.

“I’m sorry but if you teach your children to hate you I will teach them to disobey you,” he wrote in X.

As someone who has been bullied by religious, homophobic people in the past, Pierce took the opportunity to help a young kid move away from the hate. By age 7, most children believe what their parents tell them. However, Pierce planted a seed in the child’s mind that might one day encourage him to challenge his ideas as he grew older. The child will likely remember that interaction for years, and may one day look back on it with shame. That shame can be a much-needed catalyst for change.

“I was shocked at first and then…well…you might have planted the seeds for him to grow from a trained little gay bigot to a good human being. I can’t argue with that,” wrote one user on X.

The vast majority of commenters on X agreed with Pierce’s response to the child’s comment.

However, some people thought Pierce’s reaction to the child was inappropriate.

Bigoted words or not, it was still a child, and many people thought that there might be a more efficient way to teach a child a lesson than to invalidate his entire belief. Or maybe Pierce had tracked down the boy’s parents them Rather an earful.

One thing is clear: Something is definitely broken in our culture when we are more intent on policing people’s reactions to bigotry and hate versus addressing the root causes of these divisions. The boy’s parents should be sued in the court of public opinion for teaching their son that this kind of behavior is acceptable.

Regardless of how one feels about Pierce’s response, what is clear is that there is something very inappropriate about a 7-year-old openly harassing LGBTQ families. The unfortunate problem is that this type of ultra-religious upbringing can cause lasting emotional and psychological trauma to a child. And this is a common problem. A recent study in the growing field of religious trauma suggests this 1 in 3 Americans are victims From trauma related to religion at some point in life.

Although we may be quick to dismiss a child’s behavior as innocent or symptomatic of being raised in a religious home, the more we learn about religious trauma, the more these children appear. A victim of abuse. Hopefully Pierce’s words will help the boy rethink his faith and his relationship with his parents.

This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

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