Intervention

A maxim I live by is to give people their flowers while they're still alive.

One of the greatest influences I have had in my life was a man named Chris Hallam. "Hallam," as I knew him, offered friendship and guidance at a critical point in my life. His time and energy were more than I ever deserved.

This is how I met Hallam.

In my final year of college at The Ohio State University in the early 2000s, I was a resident advisor in student housing for the second year in a row. My previous year as an RA was admittedly shaky, with extreme social anxiety and awkwardness making me less than popular with my residents and barely decent at my job. It was a miracle I was even invited back.

Also, I was a committed evangelical Christian, having been "born again" my very first week at the university. The evangelicalism I bought into was charismatic and fairly conservative, though tempered slightly by the reality of attending a public university. Within my first three years, I became a student officer in campus ministry and was a member of a nearby storefront church. Needless to say, I was quite immersed in evangelical culture at the time.

While I was hardcore about loving God, following Jesus, and doing what I believed was right, I struggled with some concepts of my chosen faith. One of these was how to respond to LGBTQ+ people.