My family knew I was an enthusiastic member of the Barbershop Harmony Society (BHS). Much to my surprise, a grandson asked if he could sing with me in the local chorus. I didn’t hesitate. Because his brother joined us as well, Grampa and two grandsons were now singing barbershop harmony together. Our relationship grew. That felt so right and wholesome.
For a while. Little did we know what was going on when we weren’t looking.
A 56-year-old high-profile member of the local BHS chapter and district recruited three teenagers, including my grandsons, to sing with him in a traveling quartet. We didn’t recognize that he was grooming our family so we would trust him with their custody.
My grandson’s parents began to observe strange and self-destructive behavior in my youngest grandson. He told them that the noted quartet man was giving him alcohol at age 14. Later, my grandson admitted that the older man was sexually abusing him and his older brother. His older brother never came forth.
Despite his discomfort, my grandson remained courageous for over two years by cooperating with local county prosecutors, who ultimately found child porn on the perpetrator’s computer, including a similar photo of my own grandson. I will spare the lurid details; they were ugly. The perpetrator pled guilty.
Finally, two years after the situation was revealed, my grandson had his day in court. Much to our family’s surprise, three members of the BHS showed up on sentencing day as character witnesses for the abuser with the intent that he might avoid jail time. None of the three men had the courage to tell our family in advance about their advocacy for the sex offender.
We were in shock. We knew these men. One of them contacted my grandson twice during the previous week to persuade him to back off the prosecution. That was a clear violation of the law done by a man who was a mandatory reporter because of his professional position. The prosecutor said that had he known about this in advance of sentencing day, the mandatory reporter would have been prosecuted.
Thankfully, the judge was not swayed by their foolish testimony. The perpetrator received an appropriate sentence, spent years in jail, and is now branded a sex offender.
Within days, I submitted a complaint to the BHS Ethics Committee against the three character witnesses for violating the Society’s youth policy. Being an idealist, I expected some formal response but didn’t receive one. I have since been told I shouldn’t have been surprised because institutions don’t want to deal with sexual abuse. They want it swept under the carpet.
Following this saga, my youngest grandson began to buy into the lies of transgender ideology and is now telling the world he is a girl. A few years later, his older brother made a similar decision.
While there is limited communication within our family with the two, they are effectively living estranged from us. One has told me he doesn’t want to hear from me. The other won’t answer my phone calls. Our family’s pain is great. I have been advised by reliable sources that they are acting out unresolved sexual abuse. They have bought into the lies of the internet transgender ideological cult with full force.
I share this story to caution parents and grandparents to be very watchful in caring for their children and grandchildren in a culture that has run amok in the wake of the Sexual Revolution.
Thank you for reading.
-A Concerned Grandpa
