Because the fact is, my story isn’t rare. In fact, it’s pretty common. I grew up in a conservative small town, with loving parents who worked so hard to support me but didn’t know many gay people before I came out to them, terrified, at age eighteen. I lived my entire adolescence in shame, feeling like I’d never fit in in my high school or my community, and even after I came out, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this essential fact about me meant I’d never find love or have a family.
