A letter to the editor i wrote... dedicated to Carlos Garay.

Hatred towards homosexuals
(A response to Mr. Adam Brock’s column)

Conflict of opinions
“Since when are you into reading The Herald?” I teasingly asked a girl, who was sitting in front of me. “Number one,” she replied, “Anything is better than World History. Number two, it’s not The Herald, it’s our school newspaper. And number three, it’s about some weird gay guy who doesn’t realize we don’t care about his sexual orientation.”
Such an opinion from a fellow peer made me think I was the only one that inclined the opposite way. I was busy analyzing the article when my friend Carlos tapped my shoulder. His already bright smile turned even brighter as he saw the article that I was reading. “God, I love that article,” he said, as he bent down to kiss my cheek.

Source of inspiration
I knew what he was talking about. Carlos is gay, and that article was one of the very few things that encouraged him to come out. He is not gay by choice; his sexual orientation was stolen from him at the tender age of six. Carlos is yet another product of child molestation. Worse, it was family. Now, almost ten years later, he has finally overcome the trauma. He never told his mother about the abhorring rape he faced, in fear of creating turmoil in his family. He wasn’t exactly on great terms with his mother either.
I was the first person he had opened up to. The next weekend, just as he promised, Carlos confessed to his mother about where his sexual orientation laid. He had told her in hope of becoming closer; hoping for a new and more cherished relationship. It didn’t affect our relationship, so he assumed the world was like that, too. How wrong he was…

Pain and distress
“Why didn’t you call at all through out the weekend?” I humorously asked. His answer was anything but humorous. His mother had cut off his home number, his computer’s Internet, his cell phone connection, his personal net and even her own numbers. She had him practically disconnected from contacting anyone outside. She became hysterical upon receiving such knowledge from him. I understood the initial shock; after all, no one could’ve guessed it. Carlos was the model chap; handsome, straight A+s, smart, spontaneous… even slightly flirty. The typical guy you would see paired up to Lizze McGuire on her show.
But what she later did is what stunned me. Carlos was Spanish, but he was hopeless in it. There is no way he can survive studying script in that language. Right now, as I write this, Carlos is perhaps on a plane that is taking him to Columbia, with his mother. She packed off. Along with their clothes, his social life and his academic plans are also now wrapped up. He couldn’t even say bye to any of us, and we have no way of contacting him. He just acted as if he was having a bad day, none of realized it was his last day here at Cypress. None of us can stop our eyes from welling up with tears, for we have lost a great friend. Thanks to homosexual hatred.