Jeff Coe spent his early years in Texas and Oklahoma. At one point he finally came out as gay and lived as a young gay man for many years. Then he moved to the NW, had a religious experience, rejected his authentic self as a gay man, and went back into the closet where he slammed the door shut. Over the next couple of decades, he continued life in the church as an "Ex-gay, straight man" and even moved to Southern California where he worked at a national ex-gay ministry where they attempted to "fix" people so they no longer identified as gay (conversion therapy with a religious/church twist).
A couple years after he moved, I came out in late 1999 after getting divorced six months earlier. While we had considered ourselves good friends prior to that, nevertheless, he cut off all communication with me when I came out. That lasted approximately eight years. Then one day out of the blue, he emailed me and told me that he wanted to "chat" when he came up to Seattle. Turns out he came out again! Things progressed, we went back and forth from the NW and SoCal and consequently, we got together and we were partners for about six years. We split in early 2013. Separately, we each moved to the Palm Springs area (Jeff moved in 2013 and I moved here in 2017). We're once again friends. We discuss his journey in this podcast.
Photo: Copyright Wilkinson/2010
Opening and closing music courtesy the very talented Zakhar Valaha via Pixabay.
To contact Wilkinson- email him at BecomingWilkinson@gmail.com
Becoming Wilkinson