Gregory Coles shares his story with us:

I’ll tell you about a boy in love with Jesus who, at the fateful

onset of puberty, realized his sexual attractions were persistently and exclusively for other guys. I’ll tell you how I lay on my bed in the middle of the night and whispered

the words I’ve whispered a thousand times since: “I’m gay.”

I’ll tell you what it’s like to know that much of my Christian family will forever consider me unnatural, dangerous, because of something that feels as

involuntary as my eye color. And to know that much of the LGBTQ community will disagree with the way

I’ve chosen to interpret the call of Jesus, believing I’ve bought into a tragic, archaic ritual of self-hatred.

But I’ll tell you good things too, hopeful things, funny things. I’ll tell you what it felt like the first time someone

looked me and said, “You are not a mistake.” I’ll tell you that my life has never been more beautiful than when it

was most brokenhearted.