Remembering June 9, 2005

It's June 9.

Five years ago today (June 9, 2005), my hell began. It was a long dark night...and I remembering being in such pain I could hardly move one foot in front of me. The pain was to the bone. For the first time I felt vulnerable, alone...and rejected...totallly.

Early on in this blog (and all those entries are still available for reading), I dwelled on the negative. I couldn't see any good. All I felt was rejection. I was not used to rejection. My wife had rejected me. My then boyfriend (the married one) also backed off because he said that "he loved me enough to let me go, since he wasn't prepared to leave his wife for me -- and I needed someone full time." So in the span of a few short months, I left my wife...and the man I thought would be my life partner.

All my church friends, (the ones at the church that Lovey and I had been members of), evaporated. Lovey then began outting me to everyone who would listen. I felt naked....abused.....wronged.

I wanted to hide....and never emerge from it.

All her family was told about my gayness...

The only folks who stuck by me were two men from the church.....my kids....and my parents.

I remember waking up one morning and realizing that I had no friends, no community of faith to help me through it. My pastor even turned his back on me. While he was on sabbatical at the Pentagon, his interim minister turned her back.

This separation and divorce wrecked me...or so I thought.

I wanted to die.

My life as I knew it died.

The only outlet I had was here.

And I wrote.....and I wrote.....and I wrote.

It became therapy for me and has remained so.

Thank God for all that.

So, let's think about this now for a few moments. I was married for 25.5 years. I had all the trappings that a straight marriage brings you: the house, the cars, the wife, the kids, the great job, the church, and friends.

Many gay married men are so afraid to come out of the the closet....to friends...to their wives....understandably so. I've been there and know what that's like. But I came out to Love in 1982. Thus began a 15 year quest to change. Due to my spiritual upbringing, I was prayed over....I had demons cast out of me....I joined a 12-step program called Homosexual's Anonymous...(since then it has become a 14-step program). I repressed....I pretended.....I flung myself into church work. But, you cannot change the core person you are.

In 1997 I was exhausted and planning to kill myself. I had it all figured out. The world would be such a better place without me. But then, I sought help from a gay-affirming church (the one I now am a member of), and then I began my journey to acceptance.

Yes, in 2005 I began my journey through hell. I separated. I divorced.

Here in 2010, I am a single gay man. (Hopefully I will meet the man of my dreams soon.) I still have the house and put my on particular stamp of ownership to it. I no longer have to go through Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the 12 disciples, both Houses of Congress, and the President to do something -- I just do it now. I have the cars (newer and better), no wife (thank God), the kids love me fiercely, the great job,a new and more healthy and affirming church, and a ton of new friends!

Not too shabby is it?

So, dear friends. If you are struggling with the gay thing....and you find yourself miserable, suicidal and depressed. Don't hurt yourself. But start looking around at your life to see what you can do to make it better. Sometimes the things that we think are the hardest, turn out to open the floodgates of peace.

Come out....be who God created you to be. Who cares what folks think?

You need to be healthy....and enjoying the blessings of living....and of your sexuality.