Opposition to play ‘Normal Heart’ motivated by son’s homosexuality By Robert Edwards The News-Leader Although she didn’t say so at the time, Jean Dixon says now her vehement opposition to “The Norma] Heart” was motivated in large part because she saw how her older son strug- gled with his own homosexuality. Her son, Bob Dixon, says he lived as a homosexual for about five years until a reli- ious experience caused him to change in late tober 1988. He told his parents shortly after dean Dixon, a Republican, was elected to the Missouri House in November 1988. Bob Dixon, 22, now planning to marry a Springfield woman, talked publicly about his former life as a homosexual in a Springfield City Council meeting in May 1991 when he spoke on a bias-crimes ordinance. Jean Dixon says her son’s guilt almost caused him to commit suicide. Her son says one night in early October 1988 he considered crashing his car off a road. She says she fought “The Normal Heart,” a play about AIDS and homosexuality produced at Southwest Missouri State University in 1989, because she saw it as affirming the homosexual way of life, which she says is ae harmful to, those who live it. Christian ous heres Tomting eno8ed. . the former lawmaker whe Ree ue Saye ( about her strong Christian belie, (see her two years in office. “It had been aneartache 1 had to deal with, and it was a tough one.” Asked if she would oppose the play again, she says, “You bet. I believe it was the right thing to do.” . Dixon was a household name in 1989-90 in Springfield — “probably because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut,” she says today. But after her defeat, she soon dropped from the limelight. She says it was a come down for her, although the commentaries she did for several months on KSPR, Channel 33, TeleCa- ble Channel 8, helped her adjust. While she is focusing on building a career with United Parcel Service and wants to geta college degree, she says she enjoyed doing the TV Commentaries and might like to try it again some day, or even work-as a television news anchor. __ “didn’t realize that I would enjoy working in that communications field as much as [ did,” she’says. }