photo by Kevin Truong
photo by Kevin Truong
photo by Kevin Truong
photo by Kevin Truong
photo by Kevin Truong
photo by Kevin Truong
photo by Kevin Truong
For me, religion has been a paradox in my life and has served as the catalyst for my greatest challenge as well as my biggest success. As a child and teen I suffered from paralyzing insecurity. I felt as if everyone else had the key to living life well and somehow it had been kept secret from me. So, I looked to conservative religious understanding to give me a strict “how-to” guide to help alleviate my insecurity, live life and simply fit in. Needless to say this helped for a while but ultimately stripped me of my authenticity and left me upset and bitter. I eventually overcame this challenge, and now live life as authentically and honestly and I possibly can. To me, this is my greatest success. Oddly enough, the great success of authenticity couldn’t have been achieved without the comfort, encouragement and faith I often drew from the foundation of a religious upbringing (particularly in my darkest moments). Truly the paradox of life!
The gay community is Dallas is large and in many ways very active (Dallas’ local chapter of the Human Rights Campaign, The Federal Club, is annually a leader in fundraising for the HRC and the largest gay church in the WORLD is also located in Dallas), yet a word that is often used to describe the Dallas at large is “clique” and this is no different in the gay community. In many ways Dallas is still reminiscent of its segregated past…but today’s segregation happens not only across racial lines but across socioeconomic class, gender (gay vs. lesbian), geography (where you live in the city), and social groups. There are many clicks who rarely find the need to intersect with the others.
My coming out story is quite lengthy, so I’ll share the short version. I was raised religious; I was raised to be closeted, therefore I married very young (19 years old) and I had three children very young. I fell madly in love with a man. I could no longer go on with the farce….not to mention when I asked my wife for a divorce she went into my email and found a love letter to the gentlemen and confronted me with it….after which 99% of my friends distanced themselves, leaving me to recreate a new life…. high drama indeed (a screenplay waiting to happen)!
If I could tell my younger self one thing I would tell him to be your unashamed and unapologetic authentic self…no matter what!”
Ray, thank you for sharing, in brief, your story. I would love to read the full version. Is there a link to a website or anything? I also married young (22) and had 3 children, but was closeted to myself even and the first confrontation/coming out happened when my children were almost into their teens. My wife and I decided to continue the closeted life, as there was no help for change, and it has only been in the last 4 years that I am beginning to face my gay self. I’m now 67.
When I accepted my gayness to myself, I wondered what my life would have been if I continued closeted. I dreamt every other situation, but you two boys showed me what it would have been. I make the right decision to run out of the closet. Though, strangely enough, I never had to confess. My behaviour opened up everything.
But, hey you two, you still have a life ! And both seem to be wondrous. You, Ray, handsome and all. You, Jern, I love to meet you and chat. BTW, you can reach me by mail or zap. Feel free.
What really matters is that yu both are OK with yourselves now. And this is priceless.
Hey, thanks, Wagner! Happy to make contact if you want. Let me know your mail add. We do Whatsapp here. Not sure what zap is.
You can both contact me at tempadmin@terra.com.br whenever you wish. “zap” is teh short form for whatsapp in my country.