“

I was 16 years old and I saw stories on a little TV on my dresser in South Bend, terrible news from a conservative state, maybe not that different than my own state. And the effect was that I immediately understood that hate was deadly, i suppose that means that I understood that I lived in a country where you could lose your life for being gay before I understood that I was gay. And maybe that has got something to do with why it took me a little longer.