along with my teenage hormones, I became hornier and very curious about what gay guys were actually doing in bed. Like most twelve- to thirteen-year-old boys, I became obsessed with sex even if I wasn’t quite sure how it all worked.
The summer theater program had been the best experience of my life so far, and I nearly had an emotional breakdown when it came to an end. I met so many wonderful people and we became best friends over the four weeks we spent together. We were all theater kids, and to some extent, most of us were a little different than our school peers. I’m not sure if any of the other kids struggled with their sexuality quite like I did and, to be honest, I think I was the only one who was actually gay. We were just boys and girls from different backgrounds who loved theater and felt that special bond. For once, it was fun to fit in and to belong.
A year after my summer doing As You Like It, I began ninth grade at a high school called Sheldon-Williams Collegiate. The majority of my high school years were spent hanging out with various groups of people who were all involved in theater, dance, and music in some way. I began to meet guys who identified themselves as gay, and a few girls who were open about having had sexual experiences with other girls. This was a select group of people who were incredibly open-minded and very honest about their sexuality. I continued to repress my gay feelings because I knew my family, church, and most schoolmates would not accept it. But I was unable to fully hold back my feelings. I think all my friends were tired of asking if I was gay because I would deny it or shy away from the answer, so instead they just left me alone to work it out on my own. I’m sure they figured it was just a matter of time until I came out.
It wasn’t until my freshmen year in high school that I saw two men having sex, and this nearly made my head and my dick spontaneously combust from excitement. My friends at school were kind of like band or show choir geeks, but a lot cooler. They were so “above” everyone and confident in themselves. I wanted to be like them, and they definitely helped shape my teenage years. One night, I was at my friend Jennifer’s house with another girl named Jenna-Lynn. They both wanted to show me The Rocky Horror Picture Show . All my older friends were obsessed with the movie and knew all the lyrics and choreography to the musical numbers. When we watched the scene of Frank-N-Furter molesting Brad, I was blown away and nearly came in my pants. When the movie was done, I told my friends that it had been the first time I had seen two guys together.
“Really?” asked Jennifer. “That’s nothing! Here, I’m going to show you gay porn. I stole a video from this weird couple who I babysit for.” Jennifer was a seemingly well-behaved girl, and everyone’s parents loved her, but she had a naughty streak. She would shoplift, buy me alcohol and cigarettes, and make out with girls when she got drunk at parties. She was incredibly open about her sexuality, and we spent hours talking about sex and all the things she had done with guys and girls. During my freshman year, she would take me driving in her 1986 Chevette, and we would skip school and chain-smoke menthol cigarettes while singing along to Donny Osmond in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat . We were badass show-choir kids. She would steal porn from that one couple, as well as raid her brother’s porn stash. I always knew she had some porn in her bedroom, but I had no idea porn with two guys even existed. She brought out a VHS tape called Bi Bi American Style and fast-forwarded to the scene with two guys. The video was awful, the actors were from the early eighties and not very attractive, but I didn’t care. I was watching dicks go into asses and men kissing, sucking dicks, and eating cum. I literally thought I was going to have a heart attack from watching my first guy-on-guy sex scene. From