'You can't pray the gay away'

Rebel explains that, for some people in religious families, coming out to their parents is simply not an option.

Duration 00:55

TRANSCRIPT

I used to think that I had to be a boy to be accepted. Like, I had to change my gender and then at least I could marry a woman and it’d all be fine and I’d be normal and... I, that’s what like, I was continuing thinking ‘I’m a boy, I’m a boy’. And I did try to express that to my mum one time and she was just like, ‘There’s... something wrong with you – I’m gonna pray for you’ type of thing [laughs].

But then you can’t pray the gay away! I tried! I tried for time! No. I, I haven’t, I haven’t actually come out. I haven’t… I don’t even, I’m, I don’t even want to say anything to my father, I don’t even want him to find out. Because there was one time when I asked him ‘what do you think about gay people?’ and he was like, ‘It’s a disease, stay away from it.’ And I was like, ‘Ohhhh [claps] shit!’ How am I supposed to run from myself? Like, where do I do that? [Laughs.] Yeah, how do you do that? Like how do you run somewhere? Like… okay!