“This created a huge crisis of my own faith.”
I grew up in the Christian faith and it was really wonderful until I realized that I was gay. This created a huge crisis of my own faith and my own identity and fear of being rejected by my friends, family and my community. This started a very long painful process of trying to accept myself. It was a long journey with my mom being really sad and angry for many years and then through all the years of patients, conversation, study and therapy my mom has come along. My whole family has come along.
I am now married to this wonderful woman and we have a family. I was able to figure out a way to keep my faith and my full identity as a lesbian. And now my entire life is about empowering people in the same space. I am a therapist and I see people on Skype who are struggling with the same exact thing, trying to reconcile faith with LGBT identity .
I had a special Bear with a fuzzy nose. I would rub it of course, then it was not soft after many years. We took him on road trips. I even lost him in hotels then they would mail him back to me. He was hugely comforting, my companion.