“Did you play with dolls or something,” Joy Behar obnoxiously asks newly out Georgia megapastor Jim Swilley about how he knew he was gay at age four, because of course all queer little boys want Barbies for Christmas. But one of the most interesting parts of Swilley’s journey is that he told his wife Debye (of 21 years) he was gay — before they got hitched.
There was sexual chemistry for both of them … in the beginning. And they conceived their children like most opposite-married couples. But after more than two decades of marriage, even Debye knew it was time to reveal that their union was based on love but not a heterosexual love affair.
EARLIER:
Georgia Megachurch Pastor Jim Swilley: I’m Gay, And I’m Telling You Because Of Those Bullycides
Kieran
It just shows you the incredible amount of ignorance and stereotyping that gay people are up against when you hear Joy Behar, a supposedly “gay-friendly” and “enlightened liberal” starting off her interview with Bishop Swilley by asking him this gem: “So how did you know you were gay at four? Did you like to play with dolls or something?”
TimBo
I think he is a hot man! But to be honest with you every time I see his wife it reminds me off a drag queen from Calgary.
She looks like she does her makeup on Rupaul’s Drag Race.
FreddyMertz
Totally going gay….wife’s hair…fabulous!
Jaroslaw
#1 Joy is a comedienne, off base sometimes, but she is hardly ignorant or bigoted. She was playing to her mostly straight audience with that admittedly dumb question.
TedinCalifornia
Although I’m not an xtian anymore. This guy really has a lot of courage and integrity to admit he’s gay in a christian circle that isn’t liberal or ‘accepting’. I doubt there ever was sexual chemistry. It sounds to me like they were great friends, and he thought he had a heterosexual duty to have a family. He even admits that after managing to conceive a few kids, that they became de facto roomies. That’s probably why there marriage lasted. đ
anyway
@4: I hope you’re right. Seems like a plausible explanation, because I initially had the same reaction as @1.
Cam
Yeah, Thats the same lie that my previously married friends all told their ex wives so they didn’t
1. Hurt their feelings
2. Have to admit to them that they used them to hide.
As for Behar….hey Joy, like Stereotypes do you? Well gee, were you bleeding all over the chair during this interview and dripping milk from your chest? Because, you know, thats what women do right?
Christian
I know this Pastor and his family. Please understand he comes from a long line of Preachers. This is not the easiest thing to hear. The Bible speaks against homosexualality. It also speaks against Judging each other. Passing judgement is also a sin. This is between this man and God and hisfamily.
Cassandra
Christian
“The Bible speaks against homosexualality.”
No, it does not. It contains a handful of passages that some people interpret as a condemnation of homosexuality, but that is very different.
“It also speaks against Judging each other. Passing judgement is also a sin.”
Which is one of the things that proves that homosexuality is not a sin – in order to condemn homosexuality, you have to judge other people, but that is sin. If the notion that homosexuality is a sin truly came from God, it would not cause you and your peers to sin.