Coming out to her was easy. But for her to accept who I am, was not.
The first time I met her, I couldn’t recognize her as one of my classmates in school. She just waved at me with that brilliant sunshine smile. Ironically, my first thought was who is this crazy girl.
When I told her I was gay, there was a look of disgust on her face. She couldn’t accept who I am because of her religious teachings and she felt “disgusted.” Those were the words that stuck and are still etched onto my mind. But after a few days, she came and told me, “Chase, I was disgusted when you told me that you are gay, but you have to understand that I came from a place where the word “gay” does not exist, and you are the first gay person that I have ever met, but that does not mean I do not want you to be my friend.”
And that was 5 years ago.
