How the Wicked Witch Helped a Gay Mormon Kid Come Out

Michael was convinced his homosexuality made him wicked, and that it meant he'd never have a family. But then The Wicked Witch of the West showed him otherwise.

How different is your life in the closet from your life out of the closet? Well on one hand, it's completely different -- living openly and honestly, giving yourself permission to do what makes you happy, refusing to feel ashamed -- when you come out, everything changes.

Well, maybe not everything. My guest this week on The Sewers of Paris (a podcast about the entertainment that changed the lives of gay men) is Michael Price, whose Mormon upbringing prepared him for a life of productive heterosexual matrimony. Nothing was more important than family. Family defined who he was. And when he realized that he'd rather dance with boys than girls, it seemed like he'd have to abandon all of the plans he'd laid out for his life, since as he learned from television, the gay lifestyle is one of debauchery and hedonism and endless loneliness.

He thought he might overcome his crisis by simply turning it off, he assumed he was literally the only gay kid at his school of 30,000 students, and he was terrified that the people he loved would abandon him. Worst of all, Michael thought that being gay meant that his dreams of marrying and having a family were over.

And it's true that coming out radically transformed his life. He'd always thought that being gay made him a villain. But it discovered that wickedness can depend on your point of view. And more importantly, he found that while being honest about yourself might change your plans, it doesn't have to mean changing who you are.