Samuel Smeltzer: Learning to be out through loving acceptance

(The author is a local activist for legal marijuana and LGBTQ+ rights.)

I always felt different.

As a little kid I never fit in with the “regular” kids and spent years trying to figure out why. I grew up in a very Baptist, Christian household, where I was taught that being gay is a choice. Because of this, I told myself “that can’t be it,” denying who I really was for 15 years.

When I met my spouse in spring 2023, I had no idea what being safe in the queer community was like. They held my hand and gently led me not only out of the closet, but out of my eggshell as well. I didn’t know I was an artist — or that I had such amazing style — but there’s such a loving acceptance for being different in the LGBTQ+ community, which reminds me that nobody can take my whimsy or my hope, and the world just might need our silly now more than ever.