Even though same-sex parents are becoming more and more common place, they still find themselves facing bigotry. This can confuse their children, who might not understand why their loving parents are treated so poorly by others.
Among those parents are Robbie Pierce and his husband, Neal Broverman, editor of The Advocate who have two children together.
While traveling by Amtrak this past spring, a passenger confronted the family, who told one of their children that Pierce and Broverman "stole" them, before calling both of the fathers "rapists" who "steal kids".
Pierce said his children cried for roughly an hour following the encounter. While he received sympathetic looks from several fellow passengers, no one stood up to defend him or his family.
Pierce and one of his children recently found themselves on the receiving end of another verbal attack, this time while at the playground. This time was different though and Pierce might look back on the incident with a laugh and a smile.
Pierce shared what transpired in a Twitter post.
Pierce shared how a young child at the park came up to him and his son to spout homophobic rhetoric he had learned from his parents.
"A random unattended 7-year-old at the park told me and my son that gay people are the devil."
"My son scoffed, but the boy said it was true because God said so."
But Pierce was able to stun this young boy silent with some well chosen words of his own.
"I told him parents made up God to make their Kids do what they want."
"His eyes got so big."
Pierce initially had some second thoughts about his clapback.
He decided his response was justified for any parent who taught their child to randomly spew hate.
"I'm sorry but if you teach your kids to hate I'm going to teach them to disobey you."
On Twitter people supported Pierce.
Others shared stories of when they found themselves in similar situations.
It's sad to think this likely won't be the last time Pierce and his family experience something like this.
Hopefully, more and more people will come to realize Pierce's family is, for the most part, just like any other.
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