Nancy Heche
| Nancy Prickett Heche | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Nancy Abigail Baker Prickett March 10, 1937 |
| Occupation | Psychotherapist, author, part-time college professor, activist |
| Spouse(s) | Donald Heche (until 1983; his death) |
| Children | 5, including Anne Heche |
Nancy Prickett Heche (born Nancy Abigail Baker Prickett; March 10, 1937) is an American psychotherapist, author, part-time college professor and activist. She is the mother of five children, including actress Anne Heche. In her memoir, When the Truth Comes Out, she describes her experiences after her daughter announced she was involved in a lesbian relationship with Ellen DeGeneres.
As a child, she attended a Methodist church and was raised in Indiana. In high school she met her future husband, Donald Joe Heche.
During the 1960s and 1970s the family belonged to a fundamentalist church and resided in an Amish settlement. In a 2009 profile of her daughter Anne, The New York Times described Nancy as an "eerily compliant wife". The New York Times in paraphrasing her 2006 memoir, characterized Nancy Heche as someone who "essentially missed the '60s ... never reading a newspaper, listening to the radio or watching television."
In 1983 Heche's husband died of AIDS. Upon learning of the diagnosis, Heche became aware that her husband had been leading a double-life as a homosexual. Three months following the death of her husband, Heche's 18-year-old son Nathan was killed in a car crash. In 1997 Heche's daughter, Anne, publicly announced her relationship with DeGeneres. Heche said, "She became sort of the poster child for coming out and bringing the whole homosexual issue into the public eye and even glamorizing and humorizing it, laughing about it, making it just another kind of love relationship." And that it was, "Like a betrayal of an unspoken vow: We will never have anything to do with homosexuals."
After reading the Old Testament book of Isaiah, Heche became convinced that change was possible for her daughter, and likened what she believed would be their eventual reconciliation to the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Heche believes that homosexuality is a sin and that through faith in Jesus Christ people can change their sexual orientation, noting that she is not attempting to convert gays. She speaks in many areas of the country, often at churches and other organized events, about leaving homosexuality. Speaking about Heche's activism, Melissa Fryrear, a "former lesbian" and Focus on the Family's director of gender issues for their government and public policy division, "It's wonderful because she obviously offers two unique perspectives, one that she is the parent of someone involved in the homosexual lifestyle and as a spouse whose husband led a secret life."
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