I’m From Jackson, MS.

by Daniel Cook

State Satellite overhead image from Google Earth 2022

I was with a couple of friends at a Lifeway Christian Store, a large chain of stores that sells Christian related objects, bibles, books, music, robes, etc, etc, etc. All of us happen to be “family,” so it’s a gay guy (me), a bi guy, and a lesbian.

A random lady (she’s white and I’d say in her mid-40s) comes up to me from another aisle carrying a book on ex-gay therapy and asks me, “Hey, if you were a teenager and had been confused by Satan to think that you were a homosexual, do you think that this book would help you see the light and come back to God’s grace?”

Side Note: I have to say, asking me anything about the ex-gay movement is generally a bad idea. I was forced to undergo ex-gay therapy for three years and…I’m still gay. It doesn’t work and any non-skewed study shows that it’s ineffective and harmful.

I calmly looked at the lady and told her that no, I didn’t think that it would work, and explained that groups such as the American Psychological Association had stated that such therapy is harmful to a person.

She kept pushing the issue about why I didn’t think that it worked, until finally I just told her that I knew it didn’t work because I had been forced to undergo such therapy and I was still gay. At this point her face went completely white and her mouth just dropped. She proceeded to run over to my guy friend saying, “He’s one of those homosexuals.” To which my friend just responded with, “Well, I’m bi; I like both guys and girls.” She gasped and looked over at my other friend, who just looked back at her and calmly said, “It’s okay, unlike those two I don’t like guys at all, I’m a lesbian.”

The lady then literally RAN out of the section that we were in and out of the store. It was literally one of the funniest (and saddest) things that I have seen in my entire life.

Just another day in the life of being a sneaky gay (as per Glee‘s Coach Sue Sylvester webisode on the topic).

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