Years ago I was attending a very large church with a considerable sized staff. I was involved in their music and productions, in their youth and volunteered in their administrative offices. At around that time, as I was getting to know the staff, one of the pastor's sons came out as gay. There was no big announcement from the pulpit, he just kinda vanished. Nobody really talked about what happened. He just disappeared. It was the mid '80s and the evangelical world was "under attack" . Preachers and evangelists were being found out and caught. Their lives being plastered across the networks.

So that was my world at a crucial point in my life. As a young gay man I had two options. 1) To come out and dissapear from my family and community or 2) Be found out and humiliated in front of that same community. I chose a third option: to hide as far back in the closet as possible as to never allow either of the first two scenarios to happen to me.

This same story has been the story for countless beautiful people growing up in highly religious environments. Instead of being celebrated as part of God's family, LGBTQ+ members are shamed or hidden away. For those of us who can, the time has come to tell our stories and to encourage those within our circles to live their true selves without shame and humiliation. To rise up and say "I belong here in this church community" . "I am a valued member of society? "I am a child of God and I am proud of the person I was created to be." Only in doing this within our local communities will we pave the way for young people to feel safe enough to live their truth.

I was recently at the Stonewall Inn in NYC and sat quietly during a somber Sunday afternoon and began to thank God for the people who came before me... for those who gave me the freedom to be at the place I am today. I pray we will also have the courage to do what needs to be done today for those who need their freedom tomorrow.