As a teenager, I attended an anti-gay \u201ctraditional marriage\u201d rally in my state\u2019s capital. I listened to the speakers and cheered along with the crowd. After the rally was over, I spoke with press, explaining my opposition to same-sex marriage. At the time, I had never\u00a0met a gay person, or, at least, I had never met a person I knew<\/em> was gay. I believed a lot of lies about the \u201cgay lifestyle\u201d and was convinced that gay people were secretly miserable inside.<\/p>\n I would never have believed\u00a0that, a decade later, I would find myself\u00a0sitting at a\u00a0reception celebrating the marriage of two men, both dear friends.<\/p>\n Not long after attending the aforementioned \u201ctraditional marriage\u201d rally, I moved into a college dorm. I had chosen a secular college out of a desire to evangelize\u2014at this point in my life I had yet to be\u00a0around people who were \u201cunsaved\u201d\u2014but I found the mission field far different than I had imagined it. I met people who identified with all different stripes of religion and found that facts like kindness and happiness did not seem to correlate with any specific religious belief.<\/p>\n I made a lot of good friends during my years living in a dorm, but at the moment, one stands out in particular. We\u2019ll call him Jared. Jared was the most friendly, kind, helpful guy you can\u00a0imagine. If someone was having a bad day, he was there with a hug. If someone was having trouble with their family, he was there expressing sympathy. He was always ready to listen, always ready to cheer someone up. Jared was the heart and soul of our dorm community.<\/p>\n Jared typically camped out in the dorm\u2019s\u00a0common area. He was always there studying, lending a hand, playing music on an\u00a0old piano, and welcoming anyone and everyone.<\/p>\n Then, sometime during my sophomore year, Jared came out of the closet. This shook my world. My parents had taught me that homosexuality was an abomination. I believed that\u00a0gay people lived a disordered, selfish, hedonistic lifestyle. More than that, I believed that gay people were empty inside, miserable, looking for something\u2014anything\u2014to fill the Jesus-shaped hole in side of them. All of this I believed\u2014that is, until Jared came out.<\/p>\n When Jared came out, I was forced to reevaluate everything I had been taught about \u201chomosexuals.\u201d Jared was the most loving, kind, caring person I knew, and yet he was gay. How could this be, and what did it mean?\u00a0In a single stroke, Jared\u00a0toppled everything I had been taught about \u201chomosexuals\u201d for the past upteen years.<\/p>\n That reception I mentioned attending? That reception was\u00a0Jared\u2019s.<\/p>\n At Jared\u2019s reception, when attendees were asked to come to the microphone and share how they met Jared or his new husband, I stood and walked to the front. I explained how I had known Jared, and what it had meant to me when Jared came out. I had never told Jared this before. And as I stood there, microphone in hand, I broke down. I hadn\u2019t intended to cry, but I couldn\u2019t help it, the tears just came.<\/p>\n When it was time to leave, I came up to Jared for a goodbye hug. As he embraced me,\u00a0he thanked me for speaking. I thanked him for existing\u2014for being there in my life\u2014and he squeezed me tighter.<\/p>\n It shouldn\u2019t have taken someone like Jared for me to recognize the fellow humanity of LGBT individuals. I was wrong to believe what I was taught by my parents and my church without taking the time to verify it. I was wrong to believe what I was taught by my parents and church when it meant depriving others of rights, regardless of verification. But I can\u2019t change what is past, and I will be forever grateful to Jared for shaking me out of my bigotry.<\/p>\n In a way, some things in my life have come full circle. Jared was the first openly gay person I knew\u2014the person who forced me to completely rethink my views on homosexuality\u2014and now I have seen him happily married. I campaigned against marriage equality in high school, and now I have celebrated both Obergefell but the also the marriage of a good friend. Today, I am content.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a way, some things in my life have come full circle. Jared was the first openly gay person I knew—the person who forced me to completely rethink my views on homosexuality—and now I have seen him happily married. I campaigned against marriage equality in high school, and now I have celebrated both Obergefell but the also the marriage of a good friend. Today, I am content. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,11],"tags":[110,106],"class_list":["post-27238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","category-politics","tag-lgbtq","tag-marriage-2"],"yoast_head":"\n