“That word, queer. It’s triggering for me. Mom used to use it on me as an insult, even before I came out. She had these ideas—I guess everyone has them—of what a man should be, and I could never live up to that. I’m never going to be sporty or, like, tall and muscular and handsome and so on. I was always a bit of a book nerd.” “Book nerds are awesome.” “I know. I know that now.” He picked with one hand at the knuckles of the other. “But there’s still always this nagging voice in my head telling me that I should be something other than what I am. I’m not the right kind of man. I’m not big
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