I was a SMYAL kid
I was a SMYAL kid. When I began to come to terms with my sexuality in my teens, I thought I was the only person in the world struggling with a secret identity that I could not share with my friends.
I was 16 when I moved with my family from tradition-bound rural Oklahoma to cosmopolitan Fairfax County. As my family settled into our new life, I felt that I could no longer pretend that I was straight — not that I was particularly good at the pretense.
This move gave me the perfect opportunity to reinvent myself as someone more authentic than I had ever dreamed possible. However, I felt that I had nowhere to turn for advice.
I first went to my parents for counsel. While well-meaning, they had no experience in dealing with having a gay child and had internalized many messages society had foisted upon them about gay people.
