"Walk a mile in someone else's shoes" is a phrase often said to those who show prejudice toward an individual or a group. And empathy is seen as the first step toward abolishing those very same hatreds and stereotypes.
In the process, he made tons of new gay friends, overcame an initial "revulsion" to the lifestyle and even attended gay rights protests against the Vatican.
But he also saw the ugly side of humanity, the side that routinely hurtled derogatory and abusive slurs at him and made him feel excluded.
"When I was first called [faggot] for real, I lost it. I saw red. I felt so violated by that word," he tells the paper.
By the end of his project, Kurek's views had completely changed.
"I want this seen as a people issue," he writes in his book. "When we are shunning people, we are shunning Fred and John and Liz and Mary. These are human people."
Just as importantly, his mother, who initially wrote in her journal that she would rather have "terminal cancer" than a gay son, is now a fervent supporter of LGBT rights.
Dang, this man seriously has some guts!! What a hero he is for homosexual committees!
Unrelated, but: http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/11kgah/the_scatter/
A w e s o m e story. I love how it's crafted in Lovecraftian style, the age old prose that is so rarely found these days. <3
Unrelated, but: http://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/11kgah/the_scatter/
A w e s o m e story. I love how it's crafted in Lovecraftian style, the age old prose that is so rarely found these days. <3
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