James Marchese, the son of Real Housewives of New Jersey husband Jim Marchese, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to pay for half his college tuition because, he says, his father disowned him and refuses to pay for his education because he’s gay.
“At the beginning of 2018, my father “found out” I was gay,” writes Marchese on a GoFundMe page. “This began two weeks of mental abuse that led to me being removed from his home when I told my Mom (her and my father are divorced) and went to court with her. Since this time, my father has been slowly cutting ties with me until I “live according to his standards.” Essentially, this meant – and still means – that I have to be “straight” and date women while “admitting” that I chose to be gay so that I could get something out of it from my mother. With this, my father has refused to help in paying for any schooling because he believes I have to live in his home and follow his preferred life-style to be good enough to receive any financial assistance with school.”
Continued Marchese: “All of this has not made me give up though as I have worked extremely hard my Senior year to get as much assistance with schooling that I possibly can through scholarships and the like. I also began working the summer of 2018 and continued to throughout the school year so that I can begin saving money for college. Even with all of my efforts, I have fallen short of the money I would need to be able to go to the college I have been working extremely hard to get into. For Fairfield University, for one year, is around ~65,000 dollars. The reason I am only asking for 35,000 is because, through my focus on my studies through this year, I have been able to get Merit Scholarships for around ~30,000 dollars of that cost. I was able to be exempt from all of my Final Exams this year as well as getting an average of 95 for my final year in high school. I did not only work and study this year as I also was the Stage Manager for my high school’s theater company for their fall and spring production. Being the Stage Manager required me to stay after school Monday through Friday till as late as 10 pm in preparation for the shows. At this current time, I am unable to get a co-signer for my student loans and is the main reason I have decided to create a gofundme page to try and help raise money for my Freshman Year.”
Check out the GoFundMe HERE. Marchese also posted a video.
You may recall a series of tweets from Marchese’s father in 2018 defending Kevin Hart, who was fired as Oscars host over past anti-gay statements in which he declared he didn’t want his son to be gay.
Tweeted the elder Marchese: ‘So true NO STRAIGHT MALE wants his son to be gay. A gay son is a curse that takes away your #family traditions #heritage#lgtbiq is a a parents nightmare that destroys families. Ruins holidays like #Christmas#KevinHart we support you! #LiberalismIsAMentalDisorder‘
In later tweets, the elder Marchese accused his critics of being bigots, and alleged that LGBTQ people are responsible for Europe “importing Muslim men” because there are no children being born. He also said that being gay is “a lifestyle choice like being vegan.”
