Speaker 3
tend to view things in very black and white terms while also putting moral qualifiers on like everything. So for the longest time, as y'all are all describing, I just thought the Bible is clear about this. So if, if I have any issues, I am obviously the problem. There's something wrong with me, which is really fun. You know, that is really great. Love that inner critic. Exactly. Love the inner critic and we're thankful for therapy now that really helps us to process through that. So I, in the same way that y'all described, I think like I just didn't, I didn't process it. You know, like I didn't think through it. I had like, because I was so scared about like what happens if we even crack that door open. There is so much unknown behind that that I'm not, we're not touching. So I never even started to process, address things personally for myself or whatever until I was like 20 or 21. And the thing that changed for me where I, because up until then I just like pushed aside the attractions, honestly hoped that one day they would just go away and I'd never have to address it. Never have to tell anyone anything. But until I started working at Walt Disney World, because before this, you know, I grew up in the South, I went to a Christian college, but at Disney World, things were very different. It's not in the Bible ballot. It is. Exactly. We talked about the boycotts already, you know, but it was there that this was the first time that like I had friends that were openly gay is the first time that I had conversations with people that were transgender. And I started to realize that there was not the inherent evil that I had come to believe would be oozing out of all these conversations. But what that did for me was I could no longer ignore what I was experiencing. Like what I had up until this point been able to tamp down or just not think about to a certain extent. And when I say not think about it, obviously it was consuming me. I mean, not think of or like not say anything aloud, you know, but I had to figure out, I had to figure out what to do with that. And suddenly scripture, it didn't seem as clear to me as I thought it had been. And I had to figure out what does it look like? Like could Jesus fit in with this at all? Is this going to be something that I'm going to have to leave the church over? Is that like what were the unknowns here? And so it was just a long process where I was able to find some helpful resources. I did a lot of processing on my own, like because the stakes were very high. It felt like to share this with anybody, especially with the space of like, I don't know what to do, you know? Yeah. But fortunately, I was able to find some incredible friends, supportive friends and even supportive church environments that like were able to help me with this conversation and to kind of bring me to the conclusions that I've come to today. So wild, right. Yeah.