I do invite you to consider what your response will be if someone comes out to you this week. How will you respond? How will you protect their safety? How will you listen out of love, not fear? Can you set aside judgment and listen with openheartedness, both to them and to whatever words God may give you?

After I came out publicly to my friends and family, I felt as though I could breathe deeply for the first time in my adult life. I didn’t realize how tightly I held myself, and fear of discovery limited every relationship. I was friendly but fearful, caring yet careful. My family and friends have so much more of me now that I’m not hiding.

Every story has a beginning

I am a woman attracted to women. While for many women, that is a cause to rejoice rather than mourn, it put me at odds with my religious beliefs, my community, and the life that I felt God wanted for me. That dissonance created a deep shame inside me that devolved at times into suicidal depression, even as my conscious mind refused to acknowledge the cause.