“Where I was raised I always heard that liking another man was an abomination and something that meant I would go to hell for eternity after I died. I carried that with me for 21 years and after punishing myself, praying, and trying hard to be like the people around me recognized that my efforts just wouldn’t work. From being called ‘sister’ by my brother, ‘faggot’ by my uncle, being spit on, and being called ‘gay-rat’ by people in school, by the time I was in high school my self esteem was virtually non-existent. Flash forward to college and after the supreme court decision I came out to my friends and family. I was told to not let this go public because their own reputation in our community is at stake, I refused my family’s pleas to go see a counselor for therapy or talk to pastor for spiritual guidance. Since then, I have come out to more and more people and began to publicly share my life as an openly gay man on social media. Since then I posted my picture at pride to instagram and updated my interests on facebook to show my attraction towards men even though a lot of people back home will see it.  Maybe it’s a small measure, but for the people like me who have never left my town its important someone has a voice and shows that being LGBTQ and living a happy and authentic life is possible.”

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