That night was the first time in my life I felt like the words “gay” and “alone” weren’t synonyms for each other. - Saeed Jones

However many masks we invent and deploy, in the end, we cannot control what other people see when they look at us.

There is something about being able to study another man’s body. No sneaking glances or peeks, no pretending to be looking at something else. There is something about the unshielded gaze.

You were never going to be one of them, said the lightning in my shoulder. Stupid, stupid, stupid, answered the thunder in my fists. I felt like I’d been split open.