I got out from under it thanks to education. For many years, I believed the dogma. I believed absolutely everything I heard from the pulpit. Meaning, I believed that because I'm gay, I was evil and even disgusting.

But that didn't make me start questioning the faith. My science teachers did that, by showing me how wrong conservative Christians are about almost everything. By showing me that faith is simply superstitious nonsense.

I'll never forget lying in bed one night when I was 16, when everything snapped. I realized I was an atheist. I realized I could no longer swallow the ignorant, superstitious horseshit I learned in church.

I'll never forget the joy I began to feel that night. My mother saw at the next day, and she asked me if I was in love.

I didn't tell her that I was joyous because I'd finally realized that everything she believed was a crock of superstitious shit, but that's the truth.

I unchained myself from faith that day, from ignorant, evidence-free belief in the superstitious and the supernatural.

I feel sad for people who are still caught up in that horseshit, but my sadness does not stop me from fighting them tooth and nail to expose how ignorant and stupid they are.