Yesterday, the Roman Catholic Church doubled down on its relentless war on queer people. The Protestant Christian world is obsessed with us ... in some sort of horrid fascination. I suffered terribly as a young child, before Hayes' time, actually realizing during a church service (when I was 11!) that I was one of those disgusting homosexuals our very mainstream and quite kind pastor was raving about.

That was during the Anita Bryant era, and he directly referred to her in his sermon, which I will never forget.

I actually jumped out of our family pew and ran into the men's room to lose my breakfast. I count that as the end of my childhood. After that day, I loathed myself. Before I finished college, I would try to kill myself. Only later would I recover from the self loathing Christianity injected into me.

I am so bone weary of Christianity's sordid obsession with morally condemning a queer people, calling us "depraved," "sinners," "disordered," "broken," or whatever other nasty names they can come up with to dehumanize us.

Hayes helped cement that ugly obsession toward the end of the 20th century, when Christian apathy and political opposition had already resulted in horrific death. I'm speaking about the AIDS pandemic, of course, during which I was a member of Act Up, fighting to encourage my fellow countrymen to give a shit about all my friends who are dying. To be clear, we were fighting Christians, who opposed us fiercely.

Then after effective treatment finally arrives and the epidemic dies down a little, Hayes comes along to give a scholarly theological imprimature to Christian hatred.

I don't know what's in his new book. I do care. But I think you are very right that it's critical for decent people everywhere to think a lot about the sordid evil behind his appalling religious homophobia.

He and his fellow Christian thinkers destroyed my life. They tortured me when I was only 11 years old, and they never ever let up.

Thank you for reminding people of their evil.