A shame that comes with knowing everything about your formative years will be atypical from what is presented to you by your peers, mass media, and your culture.

A shame that comes with feeling unsafe in your own skin, school, and home. My childhood, it seems, was a grand lesson in shame.Ī shame that was, at the time, inexpressible. If growing up as a gay kid in rural America wasn’t difficult enough, puberty brought a new, intimidating wave of issues, like the strange feelings about my male classmates, both in my head and “down there.” But, as all gay teenagers will come to know, difficult situations are learning experiences from which we can grow.