My name is James. This is my story.

I graduated from an evangelical school and attended their bible college but I saw so much hate and hypocrisy that I questioned all of it. Anita Bryant was a hero to these people and in 1977 she was leading her crusade against “them.” I was disgusted.

In protest, I wrote a letter to the local newspaper where I lived in Indiana and expressed my disdain at Bryant’s crusade. A right-wing radio shock jock contacted me and asked me to explain my position so I went on his show as a guest.

After about 20 minutes, he ambushed me and blurted out, “Are you gay?” Without hesitation I told him that I was and the call lines went dead. The host expressed his confusion as to why this happened. After he continued to cajole the audience one woman called in and said, “I can tell you why people aren’t calling, they are shocked.” Then she blurted out, “I’ve had him in my house.” She was someone I knew.

There was a shortage of LGBT individuals willing to do radio interviews and I had multiple invitations, which I accepted. I decided to write an expose of the Moral Majority and went to Indianapolis to cover a rally they hosted promoting legislation to make it a felony to be gay.

One of the major radio stations in Chicago asked me if I would debate Greg Dixon, who was vice president of the Moral Majority at the time, and I agreed. I had visited his church and found recordings of sermons he had given and queued them up to the appropriate spots. Pastor Dixon began lying right at the start of the debate, claiming they merely wanted to stop “special rights.” But I had him on tape calling for the execution of gays. When I played that he lost his temper.

He screamed that they couldn’t get away with killing gays as society wouldn’t allow it but that gays ought to be jail at the very least. “Yes, I believe that homosexuals ought to be in jail, I certainly do,” he said. This was supposed to be the first of three debates but when I got to the radio station for the second one Dixon was absent and never explained why.

In many ways I came out under fire in the first salvos of the culture wars and their authoritarian agenda. I know these people well and I haven’t stopped fighting their hate since.

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