The irony of religion
Although the world is scary and complicated, it is also heroic and beautiful, so there are many intelligent, valid religious points of view, because life is a religious adventure toward death, in a way. That being said, Jeanette's mother finds the ironic side of religion. Instead of religion helping humans cope with death, Jeanette's mother embodies death herself, killing communion with her own daughter because of something as perfunctory and obvious as sexual orientation.
The irony of judgment
Clearly, as a lesbian, Jeanette struggles to cope with her mother's judgmental opinions of homosexuality. The irony of course is that in their religion, Christianity, judgmental versions of religion are clearly condemned by Jesus, so not only is the judgmentalism of Jeanette's mother a sign of her hatred and resent, it is evidence that she has not truly learned to love everyone in the way Christianity clearly argues she should.
The irony of sexual attraction
Although a person may participate or not in their attractions, the argument could be made that sexual attraction is involuntary. It is motivated by a person's choices, but at the end of the day, there are girls like Jeanette who have basically always loved people of the same sex, and those people aren't automatically evil for that, but Jeanette's mother finds herself believing something anti-intellectual about homosexuality, that it is a choice. It is certainly not as simple as she thinks.
The irony of multiple truths
Although Jeanette's mother has good arguments for why her belief system works, she can't acknowledge that other people's points of view about God are also valid in the same way hers is valid to herself. Jeanette's mother has found an Orange and decided it is the Only valid fruit, which of course is foolish. In fact, there are many Christians who would be offended by the mother's judgmental approach. From verses like, "In Christ there is no male nor female," (Galatians 3), it seems obvious that Christianity should be about recognizing the divinity in various points of view.
The irony of gender norms
Gender norms are a normal default pattern for young children to use when constructing their identity. But, sometimes those gender norms go too far, prohibiting people from the freedom to be their self. In this story, Jeanette's mother has extremely stiff, brittle views about gender roles. She believes girls should all go marry men and be wives, but of course, that is blatantly rejecting Jeanette's own sense for who she really is.
