For this is an intensely personal decision and not one typically for the public domain, ... Yet, it cannot and should not pass.

for being a gay American but rather for having let personal feelings impact my decision-making.

We are losing sight of civility in government and politics. Debate and dialogue is taking a back seat to the politics of destruction and anger and control. Dogma has replaced thoughtful discussion between people of differing views.

I realized that my truest passion was for helping people change through faith in a higher power. That meant, for me, belonging to the church. Using my abilities to bring Christian doctrine to a postmodern world.

I knew I was different when I was about six years of age but I just knew that I wasn't like everybody else. I mean I wasn't like the other kids. I didn't know what that was. But I guess it was when I was in seventh or eighth grade, I'm like, 'Hey, something's wrong here.'

Being gay is a fundamental part of my being - the core of who I've always been, and the thing that I had repressed and run from all my life.