This book was about the real life story of a young gay man who committed suicide most likely because his mother, a fundamentalist Christian named Mary, told him that if he just prayed and trusted God his “problem” would go away because in her mind, God wouldn’t send any of his children earth side with some innate part of themselves that would send them to Hell. That made no sense. So she just kept telling him good people couldn’t be gay, and he was good so all he had to do was try harder and God would fix him. Eventually, Bobby seem to have decided that since he wasn’t getting any better, he must be an awful person. So he jumped from an overpass.
Mary’s grief and shock that trusting in God made the worst thing happen caused a crisis of faith, and she evolved to the point where she learned nothing was wrong with her son to begin with. She spent the remainder of her life advocating for gay children and teens.
I remember seeing the TV movie a long time ago and thought it was fine but don’t really remember all that much about it. I can remember it was sad but it wasn’t something that left a huge impression after it was over.
The book though? Good gracious. I’ve read some sad things that made my eyes tear up a bit but this was just devastating.
I like that the author used excerpts from Bobby’s diary. Bobby obviously didn’t feel heard in life, so it’s really nice that some of his words are out there as he wrote them.
by homerteedo