I think a lot of the time people assume that their values are universal. And they don't understand which aspects of their values are actually universal and which aspects are very specific. Andrew Solomon More Quotes by Andrew Solomon More Quotes From Andrew Solomon I really feel that the Church leaders have blood on their hands. I feel that there are gay Mormons who have committed suicide or whose lives have been destroyed because of the attitude of the Church. Andrew Solomon gay suicide attitude I had known a couple of people who had died, but the loss of my mother contained something of the profoundly unknowable. Andrew Solomon couple mother loss I don't understand what the nature of God is. But I do have the feeling that I'm at some feet, and lucky to be there. Andrew Solomon lucky feet feelings If your love didn't always contain the possibility of loss, it would be very different from human love as we know it. Andrew Solomon different would-be loss I've chronicled the experience of the mother of a transgender child who got attacked by the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee, and that of a transgender woman who was asked to deliver a sermon at her Montana church and got a standing ovation from her congregation. The idea that Christianity is a blanket term that encompasses both of those attitudes seems ludicrous to me. Andrew Solomon mother attitude children I believe that organized religion is an ornament to the truth, and that aesthetics are part of its power. Andrew Solomon aesthetics ornaments believe I look at the rates of suicide among gay teens. They are so, so high for suicide attempts and for completed suicides. Andrew Solomon gay suicide looks Being gay is immutable. Andrew Solomon being-gay gay I'm a huge believer in science. But I don't think it explains everything. Andrew Solomon believer huge thinking I know one gay ex-Mormon who is a talented, self-destructive alcoholic. Whenever he is drunk and going on a tear, we are back to the Mormon Church and his being thrown out of the Mormon Church and growing up with this sense of being evil. Andrew Solomon growing-up gay self The experience of being depressed and emerging from depression made me understand the idea of a soul. I felt that the language in which one could best acknowledge that drew from faith. Andrew Solomon being-depressed soul ideas I believe very deeply that this beauty I call the soul is not a random occurrence. I don't know what its meaning is at some larger level, but I know that it has meaning. Andrew Solomon levels soul believe Despair is part of love. Andrew Solomon despair I have always believed in trying to be a good person and giving to the world, and treating others in a just, kind, merciful way. Andrew Solomon treating-others trying giving I'm sure that if we had enough sophistication, someone could look at what my changes in brain structure were as I came to feel more deeply in love. Andrew Solomon had-enough brain looks Science still won't explain the mysterious nature of love and despair. Andrew Solomon mysterious despair stills The idea of what it is like to lose everything is awful. Andrew Solomon loses awful ideas I hate the comparative idea that you have to love your spouse more than you love your parents. Andrew Solomon hate love-you ideas My parents deeply and truly loved each other, and if my mother hadn't died they would have been together forever. They were together for as much of forever as was given to them. They really loved my brother and me and were very good to us. It gave the model of how to have a happy marriage and family, but it also set the bar very high. Andrew Solomon parent brother mother We see people of kindness, compassion, and possibly even faith being told, "Because of a characteristic with which you were born, you are evil and bad." Anything that even implies such a stance is profoundly toxic. Andrew Solomon compassion kindness people
