All Revved Up
1991-92: We met Andrew when Megan sought his emotional support after she was diagnosed with lupus. Although Megan was married to Jake, who at the time was being held in a Middle Eastern prison, Andrew and Megan became very close and the reverend fell in love with her. Andrew told Megan how he felt as she lay on her deathbed, but as a man of the cloth he remained committed to doing the right thing. He then risked his own life to bring Jake home to share final moments with his dying wife.
1992: Andrew’s father, Sloan, a retired Army general, learned that he had Hodgkin’s disease and came to Llanview to make peace with his son. They had been estranged for years over Sloan’s refusal to accept the fact that his late son, William, was gay and died of AIDS. But the father/son relationship remained frosty because Sloan continued to deny the truth about William.
Later that year, Andrew befriended Billy Douglas, a gay teenage boy who came to Andrew for counseling. Marty, who had been trying to seduce Andrew, grew jealous of the closeness between Andrew and Billy, so she told Billy’ s parents a vindictive lie that the pastor was trying to seduce their son. The rumor spread throughout the town and although Andrew could have deflected the accusation by declaring that he was heterosexual, he instead claimed a basic right to privacy and defiantly refused to publicly reveal his sexual preference. Andrew sustained a brutal beating from a homophobic bigot, but held his head high and refused to quit his post at the church. Cassie, who was now dating Andrew, began receiving hate letters.
Andrew further angered his father when he arranged to have William’s name added to the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt when it came to Llanview. At the church, Andrew delivered a touching speech about the destructive danger of hate and the divine power of love, and then brought everyone to the church lawn, where he added his brother’s name to the sprawling quilt. Andrew’s father was moved, offered to help lay the panel and the two finally made their peace.1993: Cassie stayed by Andrew’s side, supporting him throughout the homophobia ordeal, and the two were married in 1993. Their baby, William, died when a tumble down the stairs caused Cassie to go into premature labor.
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