Thank you for these inspiring stories!

You know, I never came out to my religiously homophobic family and church community, not with words. Rumors flew about me when I was in my late teens, my church offered to pay to send me (out of the goodness of their hearts 🙄) to a conversation therapy camp.

I came out by ignoring the rumors and by insisting nothing was wrong with me — and that the supposed therapy they were offering was both useless and pointless — for anyone.

That pretty much did the trick. That was taken as me coming out.

I was soon effectively ostracized by all the people who had been closest to me. Unlike the heroes in your interviews, it took me another decade to become an activist. I was lost for awhile, struggling to understand how to make my way in a world that often felt hostile to my very existence.

I had a few close friends and allies during that lost decade who accepted and encouraged me, and I'm forever grateful to them for helping me find a path to dignity and the strength to fight for social justice, which I eventually did with Queer Nation and Act Up.