Daniel Ashley Pierce, a 20-year-old from Georgia, came out as gay last October. At the time, his father was unresponsive and his stepmother seemed supportive. However, things took a turn for the worse Wednesday when Pierce found himself a part of what he describes as a "delayed intervention" involving his father, stepmother and grandparents. He apparently captured footage of the interaction on camera.
Pierce's video began going viral after it was posted by Dan Savage with Seattle's The Stranger. In the five-minute clip, which does not focus on any individual's face, the people in the room with Pierce can be heard telling him his sexuality is a choice. When he disputes that, they use religion as an argument.
"No, you can believe that if you want to," a woman, presumably his grandmother, can be heard saying, "but I believe in the word of God, and God creates nobody that way. It's a path that you have chosen to choose. ... You go by all the scientific stuff you want to. I'm going by the word of God." She goes on to say that since Pierce has "chosen that path" they will no longer support him and he needs to move out because she "will not let people believe that I condone what you do."
Pierce asks his stepmother if he can stay in the house, but she refuses.
"You're full of s**t," she says. "You told me on the phone that you made that choice. You know you wasn't born that way. You know damn good and well you made that choice. You know that [your father] has done everything he can to raise you. ... He didn't need to blame himself."
At this point, an apparent physical altercation occurs. The camera starts moving, and Pierce can be heard yelling to the woman to stop hitting him. A man yells, "You're a damn queer." At the end of the video, someone calls him "a disgrace."
Pierce took to Facebook to discuss what happened Wednesday:
/ - What a day.... i thought that waking up at 9:48 and being 15 mins late to work was going to be the biggest problem today. but i didn't know that my biggest problem was going to be getting disowned and kicked out of my home of almost twenty years. to add insult to injury my step mother punched me in the face repeatedly with my grandmother cheering her along. i am still in complete shock and disbelief. /
The family members involved in the intervention, which he says was "driven by my grandparents," have not contacted the media, but they left Pierce a voicemail telling him to remove the video of the incident from YouTube.
Horrible, horrible people. Really have no amount of respect for any family let alone mother that disowns a child so quickly, just because he wants to be himself and be able to be himself around the people that are supposed to unconditionally love him.
Sorry for anyone that has gone through anything similar.
The fact that he probably has more money in the bank than his bigot family. The ultimate clapback!
I mean don't they know that gays run the world? I mean the clothes that they are wearing were probably designed by some gays unless if they're not wearing any clothes (can't tell).
