First Post!- Sexuality and Family

Tonight I tuned into A&E's Intervention, a show that documents the lives of addicts and their families, ending in an intervention. The subject matters range from eating disorders to alcohol abuse. This particular episode concentrated on a woman from Nebraska who is addicted to crystal meth. When she was young, she was a tremendous athlete, breaking the NCAA record for the indoor women's shot put, and was chosen to participate in the 2000 Olympics. However, her dreams of Olympic glory were shattered when she began using drugs after meeting close friends in the gay community. Her family nearly abandoned Tress, not because of her drug use, but because she is a lesbian. Her family, closely tied with their church, believes that homosexuality is a sin and are afraid that Tressa is going to hell. They do not give Tressa support in order to help her quit because they believe that she merely has lost her connection with God. They are waiting for her to snap out of being gay, despite the fact that she is living with her girlfriend. The abandonment that Tressa feels is merely perpetuating her drug use. At one point she asks her father if she gets off drugs, but still has her girlfriend in her life, would she still be wasting her life? He thinks she would be.
I found this episode to be particularly provocative. I find her family's rejection of Tressa's sexual orientation to be directly linked to her drug use (and subsequent loss of motivation to succeed in sports). To think about this in a social constructionist point of view, Tressa's family has created a world of strict religious influence and has therefore isolated her for perhaps her entire life. They have defined life in terms of male-female romantic relationships and Tressa does not fit into her family's construction of life. Turning sexuality into a moral issue has been turned into a popular debate as of late. In Tressa's case, her family cares about her; they do not want her to go to hell for being a lesbian because that is what they believe. However, perhaps the more immediate concern is Tressa's addiction to a deadly drug.
At the end of the program, Tressa spent several months in rehab. It showed her therapist telling her that it doesn't matter that her parents do not accept her lifestyle because she is the one who ultimately must accept herself in order to be happy and permanently stay off drugs. I think that this could possibly be the only solution to settle the conflict between the GLBT community and religious individuals. There is no way to tell anyone to change their beliefs, but I think that the two communities could come to some sort of consensus; rather than judging others, people must first learn to accept themselves. This, of course, is easier said than done. At the end of the episode, and epilogue concluded that after returning from rehab, Tressa visits and talks with her family regularly, but never about her sexual orientation. While we are encouraged to accept others, sometimes it can be difficult. And while Tressa’s family may never embrace her sexuality, merely tolerating it could at least be considered a step in the right direction.