Life

Oprah explores a mother’s love and struggle to accept her gay son

Oprah explores a mother’s love and struggle to accept her gay son
Photo: Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Connie Johnson, the wife of retired NBA superstar Magic Johnson, knows the struggle of being close to someone who is different and loving them anyway. Her husband has been living HIV positive for decades, and three years ago their son, EJ, came out as gay. 

This Sunday, Johnson sits down with Oprah Winfrey to discuss how she reconciled her Christian faith with her son’s sexual orientation.

“You’re Christian, you believe in the word, you live by the word,” Winfrey said to Johnson on the next episode of Super Soul Sunday. “How did you reconcile what Christianity says about being gay with your loving of your son … and still remaining Christian?”

“That was a very hard thing for me,” Johnson said. That was a very, very hard thing for me. I tried everything, but finally I just said to myself, ‘This child is innocent. He was like this when he was a baby, it can’t be wrong. It can’t be wrong.’ ”

Watch the clip via People, and a preview from OWN, below.

 

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