The only equivocation was that he believed there was some value in helping “some men who wished to live “in congruence” with their faith.” In other words, he did not wish to condemn the people who believed this means of resisting their sexual urges was important.

I don’t think it’s the right way to think about homosexuality, obviously, but it’s not really my place to tell homosexuals how to resolve the tensions they feel between their sexuality and their religious beliefs. That’s up to them.

I don’t see how Matheson saying he will “support the rights of individuals to choose how they will respond to their sexual attractions and identity” even remotely undermines his apology.

More to the point, it seems fairly dishonest to say Matheson “refuses to apologize” when he explicitly did apologize.

And yet, he equivocates. Context is everything.

Your comment began with “Matheson refuses to apologize…” and ended with Matheson saying, “I unequivocally apologize.”

That’s not exactly what happened between the Keyeses. Maya was working for her father’s political campaign and living with her parents in an apartment paid by the Republican National Convention. While at it, she publicly protested against Bush’s inauguration, so Alan fired her and asked to move out of the apartment due to conflict of interests. She then, moved back to Chicago and publicly came out. Btw, her parents knew that she was a lesbian but kept it private. In order words, it was political disagreements that caused this conflict and Maya, influenced by it, decided to come out publicly. Later Keyes admitted that he did not disown his daughter but as Catholic he believed what the Church teaches on homosexuality.

While the Bible teaches that homosexual lifestyle is abomination, it also teaches that we all need to love each other because we are all sinners. That does not mean that we should approve of sinful behaviors, though. Still, if possible live at peace with everybody. If there are parents who fail to understand this, then they got it wrong, too.

But people don’t learn their faith in a vacuum. Far too many gay Christians have had the misfortune of growing up listening to their pastor and/or parents) railing against the evils of homosexuality and telling them that their lifestyle is an abomination.

People like Maya Keyes, the lesbian daughter of right wing Christian pundit Alan Keyes who threw her out of their home when she came out as a lesbian. I’ve seen a couple of similar postings on Reddit in just the past few days where vulnerable Christian teens are at a loss of what to do in the face of profound hostility from their conservative Christian parents over their sexuality.