Christian Rocker Trey Pearson: ‘I grew up in a Christian church where I was taught that God hated homosexuality’
Earlier this week we reported that US Christian rock singer Trey Pearson has come out in a moving letter to fans.
Pearson made an appearance on The View where he was interviewed by co-hosts and opened up about his sexuality.
He said: “I grew up in a Christian home and church where I was taught that God hated homosexuality and I could choose to be straight. And I tried for a really long time. And I don’t think I was ever trying to lie to anyone. I was trying to convince myself that I could be something I wasn’t.”
He adds that, “A lot of the church continues to teach that this is a choice and they don’t realise how damaging it can be… There’s still people that are teaching these hurtful things.”
According to Towleroad, Pearson was married to a woman for 7 and a half years and has two children. He explains that he entered the marriage because he believed that’s how it “was supposed to be.”
Speaking about his now ex-wife and children, Pearson said: “They’ve been unbelievably loving and supporting.”
“By the time I was able to tell myself and tell her, she just hugged me and cried and told me how proud of me she was for being able to be honest with myself. She’s been my biggest supporter, my biggest advocate.”
Pearson also revealed his father’s reaction to his coming out.
“The day that my story came out, my dad was at work and he read it. And he showed up on my porch while I was curled up on the couch, not sure what people would think, who would be talking about it. And he just knocked on the door – I had no idea he was coming – and he just hugged me for 10 minutes and told me how much he loved me.”
Pearson hopes the church will change and still considers himself Christian and says he’s “more in love with Jesus then ever.”
“I want to see our church change. I want to see my denomination change and I want people to see people be willing to have the conversation in an open way where they’re willing to listen to people’s stories. That’s why I think it’s so important to tell… It’s not just me. There are millions of people going through what I’m going through right now.”
He’s also single and revealed that “isn’t dating” at the moment.
“I decided to take at least a year to get to know myself as a gay person before starting to get to know who somebody else is in that sort of way.”
You can watch the full interview below:
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