It's Miranda who speaks up. "You're gay," she says, with complete seriousness. "And I love you.

He plants himself right there in front of Craig’s mother and says, “You need to love him. I don’t care who you thought he was, or who you want him to be, you need to love him exactly as he is because your son is a remarkable human being. You have to understand that.”

And Craig’s mother whispers back, “I know. I know.

You've never really trusted him, though you don't understand why. Something about the fact that he's hidden all his life - which is hypocritical as hell after your ten years in Tirimo.

As I was coming out of the closet, our car was hurtling over an embankment.

Coming out of the closet feels liberating because you no longer have to carry all that crap around with you, in your mind, wherever you go. This kind of language makes the closet sound like a horrible place, which it is. Unfortunately, for many people, it is also necessary to spend some quality time inside, if just to figure shit out in peace without the noise of the outside world.

The role of the closet has changed over the years. Coming out, or simply being out, is certainly easier in a more general sense given that society is, as a whole, more excepting of the LGBT community than it has been in the past. This does not change the fact that many LGBT youth have to stay in the closet for fear of the personal safety or that many people will still take punitive actions against LGBT people just for being who they are.

Du kannst ihn nicht mehr enttäuschen, er ist nicht mehr da.“
Riley knallte sein Glas auf die Arbeitsplatte und beugte sich erbost zu ihr hinüber. “Aber er ist noch hier drin!“, zischte er und tippte sich an die Schläfe. “Ich habe mein Leben lang alles falsch gemacht, da will ich es wenigstens hier richtig machen!