Dec 26, 2003  |  By: JEFFREY WILLIAMS  | COMMENTS     

THIS IS AN open letter to my dear friend Taye. He is a confused 16-year-old who was raised by his parents in Queens as a devout Christian.

When I first met Taye, he was just 11 years old and reciting religious Scriptures — or “propaganda,” as I like to call it — and interpreting the verses in a manner that directly condemned homosexuality.

the time I was a little older, but I knew that what he was “preaching” had very little to do with what he read and much to do with what he was being spoon-fed by his parents and clergy: namely, hatred.

A few weeks ago, Taye called me up one early morning and told me that he had just told his parents that he is gay.

Not surprisingly, they did not take it well.

Their first reaction was disbelief, not uncommon when parents hear anything that they are not willing, strong enough or open-minded enough to accept about their children. Their next reaction was pure hatred.

His parents decided that Taye was no longer their son. After all, no child of theirs could ever turn out to be such a revolting, disgusting embarrassment to the family.

After berating their emotionally weak son — their only child — his parents told their son he had exactly six hours, six minutes and six seconds to leave his home and never return unless he repented against his homosexual lifestyle.

The numbers were not coincidental; Taye was now marked with the sign of the Anti-Christ.

His parents used the Satanic symbol for evil — “666” — because they felt their son had been possessed by the Devil and had to be removed from the home so that he would not ruin their Christian, God-fearing souls.

Taye hurried to piece together his few possessions while his mother and father waited in the next room, praying aloud that their son might die by the end of next year because of his sinful life.

In their minds, being gay is a lifestyle decision their son made, not something that he has no control over.

I DON’T UNDERSTAND how his parents could be so misguided. A lifestyle is a pattern of conduct that develops in childhood and is the product of interests and activities, leading to an affluent lifestyle or an adventurous lifestyle.

Being gay, on the other hand, is a deeply rooted internal orientation that is present early on, possibly before birth. Being gay is not about what you do, it’s who you are.

But his parents would never listen to such a reasoned argument.

Distraught at being turned out of his home, Taye ran to his best friend’s house in the Bronx, where he stayed for a few days before moving in with a distant cousin in lower Manhattan.

In a recent conversation, Taye told me that he is severely depressed and fears he has nothing to live for — and so, as he put it, “My life is worth more in death.” Those fatal words frightened me.

I knew he needed immediate attention from professionals, but he refused.

He won’t even seek them out with me for fear I would send him to a mental hospital and put him under a suicide watch.

Frankly, that was my plan.

Now, the only way I feel I can get through to Taye is by writing this “open letter” to him.

He is a huge fan of the Blade, and I know that as sure as this newspaper is being published, he is reading every word.

TAYE, I KNOW you think you have nothing to live for. But let me tell you that you have endless possibilities in the future.

Living a reckless life and having indiscriminate and unprotected sex with anyone and everyone you meet online is not going to kill you instantly the way you think — because I know that, deep down, whether consciously or not, that is what you are planning.

You will instead live a long life in pain, on medication and with countless unbearable side effects and sensitivities. Trying to infect yourself with HIV will not do anyone any good.

Our mission as gays living in a world full of bigotry that is sometimes hidden and sometimes blatant, is to try to help people to understand us, to try to better our community and to try to reach out to young, troubled people — people like you.

Your story, as full as it is of heartache and pain, is not ...