Suffering for Faith — LGBTQ Kids
On tears and rejecting harmful belief systems
I cried as I fell asleep —
My own fault, really. I shouldn’t have been reading Braden’s Story by Mason Dodd. As an aspiring author of LGBTQ YA fiction, I read a lot. Knowing my genre is part of the job. This one knocked me for a loop.
Plot line?
Braden is 13, an only child, the cherished member of a devout, loving Christian family. His life couldn’t be better… until he begins realizing his sexual attraction to other guys.
Over the course of the next five years, Braden’s family is ripped to pieces as he first accepts his sexual orientation, then rejects it to please his parents.
The author shows him changing — from a happy, thriving child with loads of support, to a fearful, almost neurotic teenager who ends up abusing his mind and body as he distances himself from the normal intimacies of family and friendship.
The conversion therapy he volunteers for doesn’t feature aggressive aversion techniques like I’ve dramatized in my own fiction, but years of constant pressure to…
