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"Coming of age in the early ’90s in a small city in southeastern Wisconsin meant growing up in a time and a place when no one said 'gay,'" writes HuffPost Head of Personal Noah Michelson. "My town didn’t need legislation like Florida’s disgusting new “Don’t Say Gay” law that specifically prohibits discussing sexuality and gender identity with kids in kindergarten through third grade, but which is strategically so vaguely worded it could possibly apply to kids in any grade. That’s just how it was. Everywhere. Always."⁠ ⁠ "Once I started kindergarten, I quickly learned how boys behaved and how girls behaved and, consequently, that how I behaved wasn’t how I was supposed to behave," Michelson writes. "But no matter how hard I tried to change, nothing changed... In eighth grade, I begged God to make me straight. And guess what happened? Nothing. I was still gay and headed straight to hell ― aka high school."⁠ ⁠ "When I tell you I had no friends in ninth grade, I mean I had no friends," Michelson continues. "My gayness made me dangerous. Odious. Poisonous. I hadn’t come out ― that was just not an option ― but everyone still knew. No one wanted to be seen with me or talking to me ― unless they were torturing me ― so I spent all of my time alone. Hiding."⁠ ⁠ "Because God never got around to making me straight and because I wasn’t sure I could face another day of high school ― or whatever horrors most certainly awaited me if I were to somehow make it out of high school ― I decided to take matters into my own hands and I began to look for ways to kill myself."⁠ ⁠ "Not saying gay ― not hearing gay or seeing gay or knowing that there were gay people somewhere out in the world living healthy, happy lives (or that being gay and living a happy, healthy life was even a possibility) almost killed me. It almost made me kill myself."⁠ ⁠ "Thirty years later, I’m proud to call myself gay and to identify as part of the queer community. So much has changed over the last three decades but so much hasn’t and I know there are kids who feel the way I felt. Even with all of the progress we’ve made. Even with all of the victories we’ve had."⁠ ⁠ Read the full story at our link in bio.

April 15, 2022