How Gay Can I Be In Sochi?

At 7:30 a.m., I walked into my little brother’s room with tears already running down my face. My mom was unwrapping him from the baby-blue blanket in his crib when I told her. It wasn’t graceful. Through my sobs, I muttered out, “I’m gay.”

It didn’t faze her. She took a step toward me, holding my brother in one hand, and wrapped the other around my neck as she replied, “It’s OK. I know you are. I see your Internet history.”

I was a sophomore in high school. With eyes still puffy, I held my head high that day. The weight of harboring a secret identity from everyone I knew and loved dissipated with my newfound sense of pride. I busted out of the closet, breaking the door off the hinges in the process. I changed my sexual orientation on MySpace that day.

I haven’t looked back since — until six months ago when I joined the ranks of BSU at the Games.

The immersive-learning program at Ball State University would be sending a team of student journalists to Sochi, Russia, to cover the 2014 Winter Olympics. As an aspiring journalist, this was a professional opportunity I could not miss. For 10 days, I would gain unparalleled experience as a reporter while attending the most culturally diverse event on the planet.

http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/02/07/op-ed-how-gay-can-i-be-sochi