December 17, 2017

Nathan Mathis, the peanut farmer from Alabama who went viral just a day before the Alabama election where we finally saw a Democrat elected to the Senate, joined Ellen DeGeneres on her show late last week. Nathan's daughter, Peggy Sue, committed suicide at age 23 after coming out to her father. During the barn-style rally for Roy Moore, Nathan stood outside with 2 signs - one decrying Moore and another with a photo of his daughter in a basketball uniform. He spoke with a deep southern drawl, but you could feel the pain cutting deep inside of him as he talked about his daughter:

“I was anti-gay myself. I said bad things to my daughter myself, which I regret. But I can’t take back what happened to my daughter. But stuff like saying my daughter’s a pervert — sure, I’m sure that bothered her. Judge Moore didn’t just say my daughter — he didn’t call my daughter by name — he called all gay people are perverts. Abominations. That’s not true! We don’t need a person like that representing us in Washington.”

Well, he was invited to come on The Ellen Show late last week, and if you felt teary-eyed after his first interview, you better go get some tissues before you watch this one.

It is always so profound when someone is mentally and emotionally able to overcome the deeply ingrained hate they feel for any one group. Imagine how hard it must be to finally realize that a view that your entire community and family feels is actually wrong? To look at your own child and see them as a human and not as a "pervert" or "abomination"? It is a remarkable thing to see and Ellen obviously seemed so touched by his words.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon