Our Family's Story on the Sunday Front Page

When the Muskegon Chronicle asked to interview our family, we were happy have our trusted friend Susan Harrison Wolffis tell our story. We were surprised, however, to find it the lead story on the front page of the Sunday edition!

Now we're hoping it will save lives.

Parents Choose to Accept Son Over Church and Friends

In 2005, while his parents were getting ready for a Super Bowl party at their home in Spring Lake Township, Ari Beighley asked if his mother had a couple of minutes to talk. Two hours later, mother and son emerged from conversation, their lives irrevocably changed. "Even when we were talking that day, I remember thinking: Things are never going to be the same again in this family," said Ari's mother, Colette Beighley.

"In a sense, everyone had his or her own 'coming out.' " By the end of the year, Ari Beighley's father, the Rev. David Beighley, 56, had his ministerial license "withdrawn" by the West Michigan District of the Wesleyan Church for, among other things, questioning the denomination's position that homosexuality is a sin, he said.

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