As Pride month comes to a close, I wanted to share a bit of my experiences growing up as a queer/bi guy in an evangelical Christian household to see if it would help anybody who’s in a similar situation.

One thing I discovered was the importance of finding “queer” role models and stories for me to look up to. For me, it was namely (among many other things) a book called The Persian Boy and - I kid you not - JoJo.

I really struggled in my teens when I began to first notice what I started to be attracted to.
Especially due to my upbringing at first I had a lot of self-hate and fear about my sexuality. I was brought up to believe that having these feelings was sinful.

I felt like I couldn’t talked to my parents for one thing.

There are so many depictions straight relationships all throughout mainstream media that I often felt like it was the only “way” and what I was feeling was just “wrong”.
I never knew what a “gay” relationship was supposed to look like.

Finding stories or characters portraying queer roles (and not just ones done for “diversity credit” or “woke points”) really helped me learn and accept some of what I was feeling as normal.

I always loved history and when I was a teenager I stumbled across this 1970s book that is essentially a historical fan fiction about Alexander the Great called “The Persian Boy”

As embarrassing as it is, I found - and still find - the writing and the relationships really beautiful. Renault’s portrayal of a romantic gay relationship as something so natural and sweet.
It moved me to tears when I was younger and when I revisit years later it still does.

Reading it in secret, it taught me so much about love and what I want out of my life. It inspired me so much and helped me learn to accept myself for who I was. It made me feel so much less alone.

It was an outlet and an escape from my not-so-accepting family and school life. It put me in a world where I wouldn’t have to worry about them. It was really good.

Jojo with its distinctive wacky clothing and poses often incorporates queer culture. The fact main characters can look really “gay” and nobody remarks on it in the slightest is great.

It really helped me to be alright with wearing different clothes and stuff in public (like crop tops).

It also has some cool gay relationships in it though most of these are unfortunately villains. But, they still can be pretty sweet at times. I’m holding out on Araki making at least one queer protagonist or “good guy” for once

As silly as it sounds these two pieces of media helped me be “ok” with who I was and taught me how to be who I am today. I think it just shows how important stories written about queer topics and with queer characters are to normalizing these things.