by Becky Belzile
“The now commonly known process of ‘gay conversion’ starts early in religious circles, even before admission to the now properly demonized official programs, and anyone living a closeted lifestyle is pushed further into the quiet, lonely darkness very quickly. Even this pre-experience experience tells these individuals (who, at that time, are, like I was, closeted even to their own selves) that they will never be able to be themselves, and that in order to survive, they must ‘kill’ a part of their identity, a part whose necessity and significance they have not even been permitted to measure.”