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No More Running Away

'I Wasn't Going to Let Some Ignorant Man Mess With My Dreams and Tell Me That I Am Not Worth It '

By Billy Glover
For Outsports.com


I was 17 when I came out.

It was in Alaska in 1996, in the middle of winter, and my mother didn't want me to go off to college. At the time I was also injured and couldn't train. When you’re an athlete and you can't train, it makes you so irritable. So dealing with being a closet case, being injured, not training, the darkness in Alaska in the winter, putting up with my mom not wanting me to go off to college … I finally just broke.

I remember standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, staring at myself, thinking, “What the hell is wrong with you and why are you crying?” My mother was wondering the same thing. I kept telling her it was nothing and she wouldn't understand, but she was so persistent. "What’s wrong?” she demanded. “Obviously, something’s wrong!"

Finally, it just came out of my mouth. “Fine, I am gay!” I even shocked myself. I knew I liked guys and knew I was different, but I never thought of myself as being gay. Weird, I know.

Read this entire article here.