AFTER I CAME OUT AS GAY at age 15, my family’s home was vandalized. No note was left, but the safe-sex poster taped to the front door made it clear that I was the target. My parents said that I was putting my younger sisters at risk with my “lifestyle choices.” Years later, my mom told me how many friends she’d lost because of my coming out, as though expecting an apology or thanks.
In 2004, the country looked much different. Marriage equality was yet to come, to the satyric whiteness of . Some things have not changed; LGBTQ people everywhere still face ostracism and violence. And Club Q was — and remains — the only LGBTQ club in my hometown of Colorado Springs, a city of almost half a million.
