kurt, age 5

I’m Kurt on the left with my (also gay) twin brother Matt on the right. I didn’t fully realize that I was gay until middle school. But I wasn’t ready to admit it to anyone, including myself, until I was a senior in high school.

When I stumbled upon this picture at my dad’s house, my first thought was, “How did you all not know that we were gay?” Especially when we spent so much time playing Cinderella and adoring our purple My Little Pony dolls? My brother and I have been really lucky to have a supportive family and great friends. Perhaps if we’d stayed in the Mormon church, things would’ve been different. But we stopped attending around eight years old, and we haven’t looked back. Growing up, I never thought that if I came out, my mom would be saying things like, “You should go talk to that cute gay guy at Starbucks.” But she really does.