I grew up in Old Brooklyn, a small neighborhood on the near west side of Cleveland, Ohio. I went to a Catholic grade school and high school. Needless to say, my experience growing up was centered around a very specific set of beliefs. One might call those beliefs fairly conservative especially around subjects like abortion, sexual orientation, contraception, divorce, etc. I played football through college and my high school football team won the Ohio state championship in 1988. I went to an all boy school and there was no shortage of homophobia.

I was fortunate enough to be accepted to Harvard University. I had not to that point been exposed to what real liberalism was. I most definitely experienced a clash between two very different worlds. One example of this was in my sophomore year when I attended a party at Adams House. Adams House, much like every house at Harvard, had its own unofficial stereotype for the students who lived in it. At this party a fellow male student hit on me. I lost
control and was of the mind to physically hurt him. If it wasn’t for one of my roommates who attended the party with me, I might have. I look back at that time with wonder (and sometimes disgust with myself).

In the coming years my life experiences created an enormous opening for me. My cousin, who struggled for years with his sexual orientation moved to Cleveland and lived with me for several years. During that time he began dating men, he came out to me and his family and met the man he would eventually marry. Through this experience I came to know, became friends, shared experiences, grew to love and opened completely to people from the LGBT community. The brilliance, fun, creativity, love and caring, generosity and community involvement I was exposed to was truly special and is now a part of my fabric. Their causes are mine now. This arc of experience and the resulting changes within me exemplify what being opened can do for us.