After their son came out, this conservative Christian couple went into a closet of their own
CNN
Greg and Lynn McDonald kept quiet about their son’s sexuality for years as they struggled to reconcile their faith with their love for their child. Now, after a long and emotional journey, they are speaking out
As soon as Greg McDonald Jr. saw his parents, he knew he was in trouble. His father stood waiting for him with his arms folded and his brow furrowed. Beside him was Greg’s mother, her eyes red and puffy. “Quick, pretend you’re interested in me,” Greg Jr. told his friend Betsy as he steered the speedboat toward the dock at his parents’ riverfront home outside Grand Rapids, Michigan. Greg Jr. had just taken a group of friends out for a rollicking boat ride. It was late in the summer of 2001, and he was about to head off to his first year of college. In just a few weeks the 17-year-old thought he’d be free. But while Greg Jr. was away his father, a conservative Christian, had checked his computer’s search history. He’d heard stories of young men being corrupted by the internet and had discovered his son’s secret: visits to gay porn sites. As Greg Jr. stepped off the boat with his friends, his father looked sternly at the group. “You need to leave,” he said to the other teens. Once they were alone, the father turned toward his son.
Battle to replace McConnell remains wide-open as top candidates quietly woo key senators — and Trump
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s potential successors have been crisscrossing the country, cozying up to former President Donald Trump and barnstorming key battleground states in the final days of the election to help their party win back the Senate — and help themselves, too.
In the closing weeks of the 2024 campaign, much of the most discussed news around former President Donald Trump revolved around fascism and french fries, according to The Breakthrough, a CNN polling project that tracks what average Americans are actually hearing, reading and seeing about the presidential nominees. Conversations around Vice President Kamala Harris, by contrast, continued to focus largely around broader and more conventional stories about her campaign.