Yup. My dad started out as a youth minister and was very good at it, then moved on to full-time pastoring work at two different Baptist churches, just as I was figuring out I was gay.

He had close relationships with Evangelical leaders in the U.S. south. We socialized with families whose names are well known in Evangelical circles but send shivers down the spines of LGBTQ people. I played basketball with Jerry Falwell Jr in his driveway when we were boys.

I do have good memories of things like Awanas and youth group, but all those memories are negatively charged by the rejection that came later.

Those positive experiences aren’t meant for people like me. It was my job to either confess the sin of my revolting homosexuality, or leave.

So I left.

I know people in that world don’t see it like this, but what I see is a world that’s set up to support and encourage and love people who are good enough, and to turn their backs on people like me who aren’t good enough.

I got treated like shit over and over, which is one of the reasons I fiercely hate the Evangelical world. I think the centrality of judgment in Evangelical people’s lives is horrifying, and I think their religion is obnoxious and awful. I say that of course as a preacher’s kid, about a religion that used to be mine.