I was 17 and in love for the first time when the bastard outed me.
Part Two — The Arrival
Coming clean and choosing the path
I don’t know why, but falling for Aaron gave me the courage to face the prayer group and come clean with them. I have no idea what put the idea into my head, but a part of me expected them to accept that I was gay. I must have been off my rocker ever to think that. They’d never given any indication that tolerance might be a possibility, and a stoning might be likelier given their conservative attitudes. But how they assessed my confession was even more bizarre.
“A demon’s possessing him,” one of the women shrieked. “We must drive it out, send it back to hell where it belongs.” It’s an odd sensation when hands reach out to you in a group laying on of hands situation. Did they think that by doing that, something would change? They started babbling nonsensically, in their favorite language, gobbledygook. If I were God, I’d not get within a couple of meters of them. They were mad.
That was the defining moment because I knew that I could never be a part of their insane version of Christianity. In fact, for the first time, I seriously assessed the possibility that I didn’t believe in anything.
