Oct 16, 2018Member-onlyTo See Disorder in Our SexualityThis is what happens when the Catholic Church tells gay children they are ‘intrinsically disordered’ — I was told to lie the first time I confessed my sexuality to the Church. “You’re going to be shown a lot of semi-naked men interacting physically with young boys,” the rector of my seminary told me, leaning in like he was whispering a sordid but juicy family secret. “The…LGBTQ14 min readLGBTQ14 min read
Published in Reaching Out·Jun 4, 2018Member-onlyWhy I Think There Is a Place for Corporations During PRIDE MonthFor most of my life I have only known jobs where the closet was essential to my paycheck. My first job out of college was teaching at a Catholic high school, a role that has become synonymous with yearly headlines declaring a beloved teacher fired for their gay lifestyle. I…LGBTQ6 min readLGBTQ6 min read
Published in Reaching Out·Jun 3, 2018Member-onlyTHAT WAS GAY | May 27-June 2, 2018Where do you go when it hurts to sing about God, but miss the connection doing so once brought? Kevin Garcia wrestled with the place for adapting the praise and worship classics and creating new ones within inclusive church spaces: And that works for me. For other folks, it…LGBTQ4 min readLGBTQ4 min read
Published in Reaching Out·Jan 28, 2018Member-onlyWhy I Write, Why I FightNot that long ago, I was living in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, where I had done a lot of growing up. The Supreme Court had just heard arguments on both the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and was expected to lay down decisions on both…LGBTQ9 min readLGBTQ9 min read
Jan 23, 2018Member-onlySeriously, Stop Saying “First World Problems”There is a scene in the movie Lion where Nicole Kidman follows around the house a young boy she and her husband in Australia have just adopted from India. He pauses in front of the TV and she leans over him and sounds it out, “Tel-evis-ion. …Film4 min readFilm4 min read
Published in Reaching Out·Jan 17, 2018What It’s Like to Be Gay at a Non-Affirming ChurchI was invited to dinner by my family in a text. “Come by on Sunday,” they wrote. “It will be a special day — a family day.” They took my coat and laid it on the bed with theirs, motioning for me to sit on the couch with my brother…Storytelling7 min readStorytelling7 min read
Published in Reaching Out·Jan 12, 2018How Denying My Sexuality Destroyed My Ability to Love Those Most Like MeI was once asked to protect an archbishop from gay Catholic protestors during a church service. It is a rather unusual thing to admit, especially considering I am gay myself, but life is nothing if not ironic. I was in seminary at the time, training to be a Catholic priest…Christianity8 min readChristianity8 min read
Published in Reaching Out·Jan 9, 2018Dear Straight People, How Did Your Coming Out Go?So in 2015 you made a video. You posted it on my birthday. Just a month after the rest of us got the right to marry legally here in the U.S. In the style of a coming out video, you sat down and said you were here because you had…LGBTQ6 min readLGBTQ6 min read
Published in Reaching Out·Jan 4, 2018Secrecy and HonestyThe following is an anonymous submission to Reaching Out: I am many things to many people. So many that in some ways I often forget myself. I was raised to believe that the world is a scary place, which is why lies are the only way to survive. …LGBTQ7 min readLGBTQ7 min read
Dec 19, 2017Member-onlyBe Different and You Will Be IncredibleI went because there were mountains on the horizon. Sitting in Dallas, where I had lived for many years, I would look out and see emptiness. The same vast sky, the same basic people. In Texas I made myself fit in, and I was starting to hate it. …Writing6 min readWriting6 min read