JB's Story

I think I should say up front: growing up gay in a small town/rural community is something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Coming to terms with your sexuality isn't easy for anyone, but the difficulty is tripled when you're from a farming community located in the buckle of the Bible Belt.

The cleaner half of the community is the Bible-thumpers; who condemn gays and lesbians to hell, claiming they're abominations to God; while the darker half of the population throw around words like "fag" and "queer" pretty frequently.

Either way, you can forget about finding any support or understanding. Your best shot of survival is to remain in the closet.....way in the closet.

What's so funny is that there are probably other gay guys in my town besides me, but all of us are way to scared to even try to make contact. You have to be careful; if word about you ever got out, it would mean expulsion from your community; including your family.

With stakes that high, it's best not to risk it. In a bigger city, people are far less involved in one anothers lives. In a small town, however, everyone knows everyone; and your business is the business of everybody.

With that said, it's easy to see why people 'coming out' wouldn't never look back.