"Unforgettable. This book will stay with me the rest of my life." Amazon reviewer Andreams
You can't browse the news these days without seeing "gay" in a headline: from the simmering showdown over religious freedom and gay conversion therapy, to bullied gay teens tragically taking their own lives, to churches splitting right down the middle over gay rights. Few social issues ignite such passion from all sides. For those who see homosexuality as a choice and a sin, the notion of gay marriage is intolerable. For those who are gay, being excluded and shamed is simply intolerant.
Bryan Christopher's life has been spent straddling this great divide. As a boy raised under the blinding Friday Night Lights of the Texas Bible Belt, from the playground to the pulpit one message was consistent: "queers" deserved to be smeared. And at the dawn of puberty, a 13-year-old Bryan knew he was in trouble: he was staring blankly at the pages of his dad's Playboy. That's when the hiding began. And in his neck of the Southern Baptist woods, it left him with one viable option: change.
"Hiding from Myself: A Memoir" chronicles his zealous and unconventional crusade: from ringing doorbells for Jesus in the Castro of San Francisco to sorting through Hugh Hefner's dirty laundry as a butler at the Playboy Mansion; from drowning in the beer-soaked trenches of his UCLA fraternity house to plunging headfirst into evangelical Christianity and "gay cure" therapy.
With this raw and moving testimony, the author offers healing and a fresh perspective on perhaps the most divisive cultural issue of our time. Bryan's story is not a "gay" story or even an "ex-gay" story; his is a human story--a testament to the innate universal need for love.
And the things that can sometimes get in the way...
You can't browse the news these days without seeing "gay" in a headline: from the simmering showdown over religious freedom and gay conversion therapy, to bullied gay teens tragically taking their own lives, to churches splitting right down the middle over gay rights. Few social issues ignite such passion from all sides. For those who see homosexuality as a choice and a sin, the notion of gay marriage is intolerable. For those who are gay, being excluded and shamed is simply intolerant.
Bryan Christopher's life has been spent straddling this great divide. As a boy raised under the blinding Friday Night Lights of the Texas Bible Belt, from the playground to the pulpit one message was consistent: "queers" deserved to be smeared. And at the dawn of puberty, a 13-year-old Bryan knew he was in trouble: he was staring blankly at the pages of his dad's Playboy. That's when the hiding began. And in his neck of the Southern Baptist woods, it left him with one viable option: change.
"Hiding from Myself: A Memoir" chronicles his zealous and unconventional crusade: from ringing doorbells for Jesus in the Castro of San Francisco to sorting through Hugh Hefner's dirty laundry as a butler at the Playboy Mansion; from drowning in the beer-soaked trenches of his UCLA fraternity house to plunging headfirst into evangelical Christianity and "gay cure" therapy.
With this raw and moving testimony, the author offers healing and a fresh perspective on perhaps the most divisive cultural issue of our time. Bryan's story is not a "gay" story or even an "ex-gay" story; his is a human story--a testament to the innate universal need for love.
And the things that can sometimes get in the way...
