A proponent of the movement to repeal Section 377A, which criminalises gay sex, has shared his heartbreaking story of being sexually abused as an 11-year-old boy by a priest, as he asserted that the church has no moral authority to speak out against gay sex.
The survivor, Facebook user Desmond Charles Perry-Wong, shared his story after news broke that the National Councils of Churches will not support a repeal of Section 377A.
In a post he published yesterday, Desmond started by describing the sexual abuse he suffered as an 11-year old boy, while in the care of a Christian children’s home: “…getting molested and borderline raped by the older boys and certain staff members was very common.”
After escaping his abusive environment in the Christian children’s home, Desmond sought refuge in the familiar boyhood comforts of the Catholic Church. The same church he attended for Sunday service and Christmas Eve Mass.
“Running away to find shelter in a nearby Catholic Church seemed like a good idea especially if one of your fondest memories was going to Sunday and Christmas Eve Mass with the grandma you missed dearly only to be woken up in the priest’s quarters from sleep on the same bed that only hours ago made you feel safe and for once you felt like your life mattered, woken up by the tapping of a warm hard wet but foul smelling privates of someone whom you used to see every Sunday for catechism classes on your lips and having it forcefully pushed into your mouth and your survival instinct tells you to bite on it so hard so you can escape then you realised that you’re locked in, it’s raining and where are you going to run to anyway?
“Fear and guilt takes over, you freeze but before you know it, it’s over.
“This was the price an 11 year old had to pay to escape countless daily abuse, exchanging countless daily abuse for a nightly abused that was disguised firstly as care and love then to promises of protection and pocket money support then to threats of exposure finally to physical abuse.”
Perhaps most chillingly, when the horrific abuse of this young child came to light, the Church hushed him up by sending him away to another boys home and allegedly covered up the incident by transferring the priest to a foreign country:
“Finally when all comes to light, this 11 year old boy was no longer welcomed in this “Christian” ran childrens’ home and was send to a boys home that was more of a prison than a home and the man that abused him was transferred away to another church in a far away country. All these accounts were reported to the home and church but nothing was done.”
Desmond continued: “That 11 year old boy still lives in me today. That 11 year old boy was me. I am sure Im not the first nor the last to be abused and there are many more.”
To say that the Church failed Desmond would be a profound understatement and he rightly points out the hypocrisy of the Church. It is no secret that, all over the world, organisations that claim to represent the power and authority of God have abused their positions, at the great and terrible expense of our children.
Many like Desmond have asked how valuable are the opinions of an institution which violates the very precepts it claims to hold sacred? Desmond asked on Facebook:
“So, before anyone comes and knock bible verses on my homosexual head look within first and you’ll realised we all bleed the same so why am I a sinner and others not?
“Repealing 377A will not change anything, it will not change anything at all for you if you’re heterosexual, it will not make your marriage with your spouse or god worth any less nor will it open the floodgates of hell and doomsday arrives but it will make your son, brother, cousin, friend, neighbour, colleague whom thinks ending their lives is the only solution or allowing bullies to bully because sticks and stones know that it gets better and we are destined for better and greater things in life and we are not criminals nor are we abominations spawns of Satan.
“To anyone whom is against the repeal of 377A. I don’t expect you to accept me cause you don’t pay my bills but walk in my shoes or my high heels, have a view from my world before you judge. I see where you’re coming from because I have been forced to see your world your way and act like one of you everyday.”
Read his full post here.