Writing on Medium got me branded a ‘borderline apostate’ and helped me navigate a complex and changing identity, all while trying to raise awareness of a lived experience that my old faith community found transgressive. My work has been published in the Medium publications Human Parts and Interfaith Now — and it’s some of the best writing I’ve ever done.
You can read these pieces (and more like them) on my Substack newsletter Borderline Apostate: Essays on a Gay, Post-Mormon Story, and on Medium (note that Medium is paywalled).
LONg-FORM PERSONAL ESSAYS
I left the Mormon Church and came out as gay, but new narratives emerged that I couldn’t meet. I needed a new story.
Teaching was the natural path for me, but the career isn’t designed to sustain those who cannot give so much for so little.
I prayed and prayed to not be gay — but I am. Now I realize the church was wrong.
For the first time in my life, I’m on the other side, being explained and rationalized by the ‘faithful’. I used to use those narratives too.
Two years ago, I quit the Mormon Church and barrelled into a new, sexuality-affirming life. This is what I’ve learned since about healing, retrospection, reclamation and connection.
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