Callum Hodge’s family has lived in a small village south of Bristol, England for nearly a century, so naturally he wanted to marry his fiancé, Ashley Jenkins, at his ancestral home. The couple married in late August but as The Daily Mail reveals, month earlier his family was sent a “poison pen” letter – by an anonymous coward – telling him and his family he “won’t go to heaven” if he marries a man.
Months before the wedding reception, Callum’s mother was the one who unfortunately opened the letter.
“Callum should be ashamed of himself for putting his grandparents through this. He won’t go to heaven,” the letter read.
“You need to lead him down a new path in life. The wedding should take place far, far away from the village. This is the consensus of the village,” the writer claimed.
The couple ignored the unsolicited, hateful “advice,” as this photo from Ashley’s Facebook page shows:
The family decided to Callum and Ashley by publishing a response in the local newsletter, believing the “cowardly” letter writer was likely one of the village’s 232 residents.
His father “described the letter as an ‘evil, homophobic attack’ which he suspects was written by a ‘bigoted individual’ who the family knows.”
“If we find out who it was, I want them named and shamed,” his mother adds.
Callum posted his own response to Facebook, saying, in part, “I’m not the sort of person that lets everyone know that I am gay, because of people like you I spent so many years in denial and lost and still struggle to open up, because of people like you so many people commit suicide all over the world because they can’t face admitting who they are and that’s because of bigoted people like you!”
“Well,” he concluded, “here’s a 🖕up to you and I guess I’ll see you in hell.”
Image via Facebook