Relationships with Family and Religion

The poetry that Matias wrote as a graduate student at the University of North Dakota reveals his struggle to reconcile his sexuality with his faith, and his family’s reluctance to accept his sexual orientation. His poems show the effects of religion on gay relationships, such as religious pressure to have a heterosexual marriage. However, Matias demonstrates faith while being critical of Christianity’s antagonistic views on homosexuality by acknowledging God’s unconditional love for him. Although Matias describes a tense relationship with his father soon after coming out, later poems reveal that his father accepted his sexuality. The consequences of his AIDS diagnosis improved his relationship with his family as his poetry reveals his parent’s concern over his health. Some of the drafts written during this time appear in later published works.

Religion

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In this short poem, Matias celebrates the union of two men that is blessed by non-judgemental God by criticizing people’s willingness to hold prejudice against gay marriage.

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Here, Matias mourns a past lover whose relationship with Christianity led him to an unhappy traditional marriage.

Family

Matias’s father had difficulty accepting his son’s sexuality, which led the two to have a strained relationship during Matias's graduate school years.

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This draft that appears in Dances with Family and Disease reveals Matias agonizing over telling his mother he was diagnosed with AIDS.

https://coateslibrary.com/hist1/files/original/db5f992a9937af1722fb5252d586a71b.pdf

In this poem, which appeared in Dances with Family and Disease, Matias describes how his parents sent him news articles about AIDS as a way to cope with their anxiety about his diagnosis.